India, June 23 -- Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy has dismissed the Opposition BJD and Congress petitions to disqualify the membership of 11 of their MLAs on the charge of anti-party activities and cross-voting during the March 16 Rajya Sabha election.

While BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik sought the disqualification of eight of its MLAs, Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam had sought the disqualification of three of its legislators. Referring to BJD petitions, the Odisha Assembly secretariat, in a June 19 notification, said, "The petition is cryptic, vague, unsubstantiated and does not fulfil the statutory requirements to be gone into on merits, even assuming for the sake of argument, but not admitting, that the cont...