Odisha Congress suspends 3 MLAs for cross-voting in Rajya Sabha polls

ODISHA CONGRESS on Tuesday suspended three of its MLAs — Sofia Firdous, Ramesh Jena and Dasarathi Gomango —  who cross-voted in favour of BJP-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray in the Rajya Sabha polls.

In a letter, Congress’s disciplinary committee chief Sujit Padhi said that the three MLAs allegedly defied the party whip and went against the party’s ideology to support the BJP-supported candidate.  On Monday, the three Congress MLAs along with eight from the BJD voted on favour of Ray, resulting in his entry to the Rajya Sabha.

While Sofia entered politics following the footsteps of his father and expelled Congress leader Mohammed Moquim, Jena and Gomango are long-time Congress leaders, who headed the party district units in Ganjam and Gajapati, respectively. The BJD and Congress had fielded urologist Datteswar Hota as common candidate for the fourth seat. “Our common candidate lost due to horse trading and some of the MLAs were sold out,” said Odisha Congress media cell chairman Arabinda Das.