Bhubaneswar: Security has been beefed up outside the residences of 11 MLAs, who defied party whips and cross-voted during Rajya Sabha elections on March 16.
Meanwhile, BJD president Naveen Patnaik has called a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the highest decision-making body of the party. Senior leaders, including Badri Narayan Patra, Raja Swain, Prasanna Acharya and Pratap Deb, have been invited for discussions on various aspects, according to party insiders.
As many as eight MLAs from the regional party cross voted in the election. Interestingly, three among Ramakant Bhoi (Tirtol), Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki) and Subasini Jena (Basta) had attended the breakfast meeting at Naveen Niwas ahead of the voting. The BJD had also released photos from the meeting to convey a clear message of unity within the party. The three MLAs also sang praises of the BJD supremo but later defied the party whip.
Deputy Opposition chief whip in the Assembly Pratap Deb, who was the BJD counting agent, confirmed that Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda) and Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack) also did not vote in favour of authorised candidates of the party. Besides, the two suspended BJD MLAs Sanatan Mahakud (Champua) and Arvind Mohapatra (Patkura) voted for Ray. ““They will attend the meetings, only to silently vote against the party’s chosen candidate while simultaneously complaining that no one sought their input,” Deb remarked.
Besides issuing a three-line whip to party legislators, BJD president had held mandatory three-day sessions for his party MLAs in the run up to the poll to defeat poaching attempts by the rival BJP camp. Many of the MLAs spent their night at Naveen Niwas on Sunday.
However, Chakramani Kanhar along Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev) had skipped those meetings. While Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Souvik Biswal cross voted to allegedly avenge the humiliation meted out to his father Pravat Biswal, who was expelled from BJD for publicly criticising the party leadership over Rajya Sabha selection, Tripathy went against the party over the alliance with the Congress. His father, Pravat Tripathy, was also expelled from BJD.
The Basta MLA’s husband and former Balasore MP Rabindra Kumar Jena had recently switched sides to BJP and there were speculation that she might vote in favour of the BJP-backed candidate.
Three Congress MLAs – Sofia Firdous (Barabati-Cuttack), Ramesh Chandra Jena (Sanakhemundi), and Dasarathi Gomango (Mohana) – also cross voted and were later suspended from the party.
The cross-voting helped BJP-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray to stage a scintillating comeback to the Upper House of Parliament after 14 years. He defeated the BJD and Congress’ common candidate Datteswar Hota to secure the crucial fourth seat for Rajya Sabha, which saw a contest in Odisha after 12 years.
It also hinted at deepening crisis within the BJD, which has been witnessing internal bickering and public outbursts from leaders since its 2024 election debacle amid BJP’s growing influence in the state politics.
In line with pre-election arithmetic that set the threshold for an outright victory at 30 first-preference votes, Odisha BJP chief Manmohan Samal, incumbent MP Sujeet Kumar, and BJD candidate Santrupt Misra each won their respective seats comfortably. Samal and Kumar polled 35 first-preference votes each and Misra got 31. Ray and Hota finished tied with 23 first-preference votes each, but Ray ultimately prevailed in the tight race thanks to a stronger showing in the second-preference count.
