Bhubaneswar, March 17: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee has suspended three MLAs – Sofia Firdous, Ramesh Jena and Dasarathi Gomango – from the party for cross voting during the Rajay Sabha elections held on Monday.

Earlier, the official social media handle of Odisha Congress had strongly criticised the three leaders, terming them "traitors" for going against the party line.

In a post on social media, the party stated, "Opponents fight you from the outside; traitors weaken you from the inside."

The action comes after the party reviewed the voting following the Rajya Sabha poll results.

On Monday OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das said that such act of betrayal was not expected from the legislators.

“Ramesh Jena, Dasarathi Gamango and Sofia Firdous have cross voted in favour of BJP’s candidate in Rajya Sabha elections. This act of betrayal was unexpected from them. We will ensure that they are expelled under the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” said Das on Monday.

Notably, cross-voting marked the Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha on Monday with the BJP securing two seats, BJD managing to push through its first nominee and BJP-backed Independent Dilip Ray staging a significant comeback to the Upper House of Parliament after 14 years.

Two official BJP candidates - State unit president Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar - won the polls while the first BJD candidate Santrupt Misra also made it despite cross-voting by at least six legislators of the Naveen Patnaik-led regional outfit.

Ray won the fourth seat with help of cross-voting from at least 11 BJD and Congress legislators defeating Common opposition candidate Dr Datteswar Hota. While BJP’s Samal and Kumar, polled 35 first preference votes each, BJD’s Santrupt Misra got 31.