Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy has dismissed the Opposition BJD and Congress petitions to disqualify the membership of 11 of their MLAs on the charge of cross-voting during the March 16 Rajya Sabha election.
While BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik sought the disqualification of eight of its MLAs, Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam had sought the disqualification of three of its MLAs.
Referring to BJD petitions, the Odisha Assembly secretariat, in a June 19 notification, said, “The petition is cryptic, vague, unsubstantiated and does not fulfil the statutory requirements to be gone into on merits, even assuming for the sake of argument, but not admitting, that the contents are otherwise worthy of being enquired into.”
“Therefore, the petition suffers from gross infirmity or defects have been presented in sure ignorance of the statutory requirements and do not deserve any consideration,” it said.
After examination, the Speaker noted that the evidence against the MLAs did not establish voluntary resignation or defection under paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Later, Assembly Speaker Padhi told reporters that the petitions were not complete and lacked evidence. “The decision was taken as per law,” she said.
The BJD had demanded the disqualification of the membership of eight MLAs — Chakramani Kanhar of Baliguda, Devi Ranjan Tripathy of Banki, Arvind Mohapatra of Patkura, Sanatan Mahakud of Champua, Subasini Jena of Basta, Naba Kishore Mallick of Jaydev, and Souvic Biswal of Cuttack-Chowdwar.
Each notification cited the Speaker’s finding that the members had not voluntarily relinquished their party affiliation as alleged by the BJD.
The Congress had also filed a petition seeking the disqualification of its members, such as Sofia Firdous of Barabati-Cuttack, Ramesh Jena of Sanakhemindu, and Dasarath Gamag of Moihana.
The BJD in its petition had accused the MLAs of violating the party whip and defying official directives during the polls, terming their actions as anti-party activities warranting disqualification under the anti-defection law.