Bhubaneswar: The Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, headed by former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, has not taken any decision on the proposed no-confidence motion by the INDIA bloc against Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.
An RS member of the BJD, however, claimed that the party is with Dhankhar, who is also the Vice President.
BJD MLA Dhruba Sahoo, considered close to the decision-makers in the party, said they have not yet taken any decision in regard to the move against the RS chairman.
“The BJD still maintains equal distance from both the NDA and INDIA. The BJD MPs have all along opposed the NDA government’s stand in the Rajya Sabha,” Sahoo said.
The BJD Rajya Sabha MP Niranjan Bisi said the party is with Dhankhar.
“We do not feel that the Rajya Sabha chairman has been working beyond the ambit of the Constitution or democracy,” Bisi told reporters here.
Neither Sahoo nor Bisi is a spokesperson of the party.
BJD president Naveen Patnaik last week had said that his party was examining the matter related to the no-trust motion against Dhankhar.
BJP MP Rudra Narayan Pani said that his party would not hesitate to welcome the BJD’s decision if it supports the RS chairman and opposes the INDIA bloc’s move.
In a first, parties of the Opposition INDIA bloc spearheaded by the Congress December 10 submitted a notice in the Rajya Sabha for moving a no-confidence motion against Dhankhar, also the Vice President, accusing him of being “extremely partisan” in his role as the Chairman of the Upper House.
The BJD has seven members in the Upper House of Parliament after two of its MPs resigned, joined the BJP and got elected to the RS.
Of Odisha’s 10 seats in RS, the BJP has three members.
Earlier, the BJD used to support all Bills and decisions of the NDA government. However, after the 2024 elections in which the party was ousted from power and lost all Lok Sabha seats, the party decided to strongly oppose the BJP at the Centre.
If the motion seeking Dhankhar’s removal is moved, opposition parties need a simple majority to get it passed, but they do not have the requisite numbers in the 243-member House. Opposition members, however, insisted that it was a “strong message to fight for parliamentary democracy”.
PTI
