Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy has rejected disqualification petitions filed by both the Congress and the opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) against a total of 11 MLAs accused of cross-voting and anti-party activities.

The Congress had sought the disqualification of three of its legislators—Sofia Firdous (Barabati-Cuttack), Ramesh Chandra Jena (Sanakhemundi) and Dasarathi Gamango (Mohana)—for allegedly cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha elections held in March this year.

Similarly, the BJD had moved the Speaker seeking action against eight of its MLAs, alleging that they defied the party whip and voted in favour of BJP-backed Independent Rajya Sabha candidate Dilip Ray during the polls.

The eight BJD legislators named in the petition were Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack), Subasini Jena (Basta), Ramakanta Bhoi (Tirtol), Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki), Arvind Mohapatra (Patkura) and Sanatan Mahakud (Champua). While six of them were suspended for alleged cross-voting, the remaining two had earlier been suspended on charges of anti-party activities.

Speaker cites procedural lapses, lack of evidence in rejecting disqualification pleas

Announcing her decision, Speaker Surama Padhy said the petitions filed by both parties were rejected due to procedural deficiencies and lack of supporting evidence.

"The petitions submitted by the parties were incomplete. Applications seeking disqualification of 11 MLAs—eight from the BJD and three from the Congress—have been rejected due to insufficiency of facts and evidence," the Speaker said.

She pointed out that the enclosure documents attached to the petitions did not contain the required signatures. In addition, the mandatory verification and affidavit affirming the contents of the petitions were not submitted.

The Speaker stated that the petitions failed to comply with the requirements under Rule 6, Sub-Rules (6) and (7) governing disqualification proceedings, which require adequate proof and factual substantiation.

As a result, all 11 disqualification petitions have been dismissed, providing relief to the legislators concerned and bringing the matter to a close for now.