6 BJD MLAs sent notices by party for Rajya Sabha vote hit back, cite SC verdicts

SIx Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislators who were slapped with show-cause notices for supporting main(a) prospect Dilip Ray in the process 16 Rajya Sabha elections feature called the notices “illegal, arbitrary, idle, and unconstitutional” and threatened criminal proceedingsBJD chief whip Pramila Mallick on March 17 issued notices to six MLAs -- Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack), Subasini Jena (Basta), Ramakanta Bhoi (Tirtol), and Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki) -- after they backed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported independent candidate Dilip Ray instead of the BJD-Congress joint candidate, urologist Datteswar Hota.In the end, the BJP won two seats, and Dilip Ray, an independent candidate backed by the party, won a third, leaving the BJD with just one.In separate but similar replies to Mallick, the MLAs cited Supreme Court verdicts and Election Commission guidelines to argue that political parties could not issue whips in Rajya Sabha elections, and that their votes were cast freely and lawfully.Among the court verdicts, they cited Kuldip Nayar vs Union of India (2006), Pashupati Nath Sukul vs Nem Chandra Jain (1984), and Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu (1992), to assert that the anti-defection provisions in the Constitution’s Tenth Schedule did not apply to Rajya Sabha elections.Disqualification under the Schedule is triggered only by defiance of a party whip in ordinary legislative proceedings and not Rajya Sabha vote, they said.Their replies also pointed to the Election Commission of India Press Note dated July 6, 2017, that said that electors in Rajya Sabha polls enjoy voting freedom unconstrained by party directions, a position they said the BJD’s own notice directly violates.The MLAs reasoned that the party’s letter on how to vote in the election amounted to offences under sections 171 and 174 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 that relate to undue influence in elections.The MLAs insisted that they had not given up party membership or violated any decision communicated at the legislature party meeting held on March 15Tripathy, who has been among the most vocal, said any direction to legislators on how to vote in a Rajya Sabha election amounts to “an assault on constitutional freedoms.”The MLAs demanded the immediate withdrawal of the notices and warned that failure to comply would result in “appropriate legal and criminal proceedings.”