Bhubaneswar, June 22 -- In a major setback to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy rejected the party's petition seeking the disqualification of eight of its MLAs over alleged cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections held in March this year.

According to official notification issued by the Secretariat of the Odisha Legislative Assembly on 19 June, speaker Padhy rejected the petitions filed by BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik on 25 April seeking disqualification of the eight MLAs.

The BJD had moved the Speaker, alleging that eight legislators had violated the party whip by cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha polls. The legislators named in the petition were Debi Ranjan Tripathy, Souvic Biswal, Ramakanta Bhoi, Nab...