Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Speaker Pramila Mallik has disqualified two ruling BJD MLAs as members of the House under Anti-Defection Law.
The legislators – Arabinda Dhali and Premananda Nayak – recently joined the opposition BJP after resigning from the BJD.
The assembly seats of Jaydev in Khurda district and Telkoi in Keonjhar district represented by Dhali and Nayak respectively fell vacant following the disqualification of the two members, the assembly secretariat said in a statement.
Government chief whip Prasanta Kumar Muduli filed a petition before the Speaker March 18 seeking disqualification of two members as they voluntarily gave up primary membership from the BJD.
Notices were sent to Dhali and Nayak for a hearing on the petition before the Speaker but they did not turn up.
In response, both Dhali and Nayak claimed that the disqualification would not have any impact on their electoral prospect in the 2024 elections.
While Dhali is the BJP nominee from the Jaydev assembly segment, Nayak has not yet been named as a candidate.
PTI