Bhubaneswar, March 21 The Biju Janata Dal suspended six of its MLAs on Saturday for cross-voting during the recent election for four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.
The suspended MLAs were Chakramani Kanhar of the Baliguda constituency, Naba Kishor Mallick of the Jayadev constituency, Souvic Biswal of Choudwar-Cuttack, Subasini Jena of Basta, Ramakanta Bhoi of Tirtol, and Devi Ranjan Tripathy of Banki, according to an order by party chief Naveen Patnaik.
The suspension decision was made at the opposition party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting, chaired by Patnaik.
The six MLAs were issued a show-cause notice on March 17.
They submitted their responses on Friday evening, which were found unsatisfactory, according to Pramila Mallik, the BJD's chief whip in the Assembly.
The ruling BJP won two of the four Rajya Sabha seats, while the opposition BJD and an Independent candidate backed by a saffron party won one seat each in the biennial polls held last Monday.
While the total number of BJP legislators and Independent MLAs supporting the ruling party was 82 in the 147-member House, the saffron party candidates secured 93 first preference votes, which was 11 more than their strength in the Assembly.
Of these 11 votes, eight were cast by BJD MLAs and three by Congress legislators, an official had said.
