Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJD Sunday evening told its two suspended MLAs to cast their votes in Rajya Sabha elections on party line or may face disqualification of membership of the House.
Patkura MLA Arvind Mohapatra and Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud were suspended by BJD on charges of anti-party activities January 15.
BJD Chief Whip Pramila Mallik, in a letter to them, said, “You were elected to the Assembly as a candidate of BJD.
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You have been placed under suspension from the party due to anti-party activities, but such suspension does not absolve you from your constitutional obligations as a member elected on the party symbol.”
In the letter, Mallik mentioned that BJD has issued a whip directing its MLAs to vote in favour of the party’s authorised candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.
“Any act of voting contrary to the party whip or abstaining from voting without prior permission of the party may attract the provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, including disqualification on the grounds that the legislator has voluntarily given up the membership of the political party,” Mallik said in the letter.
