The State Election Commission (SEC) has disqualified nine rebel BJD councillors as members of the Keonjhargarh Municipality for
violating the party whip.
The nine dissident councillors defying the whip had voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Municipality Chairperson Meena Majhi on December 28 last.
Majhi was unseated after 15 councillors, including the nine from the BJD, in the 21-member council voted against her.
The SEC rejected the petitions of the nine members Sangeeta Nanda, Dillip Kumar Behera, Swarnalata Sahu, Prabhati Patnaik, Sabita Sethi, Kumudini Nayak, Satrughna Nayak, Sunil Kumar Nayak and Kuna Naik and disqualified them under Section 46 A (1) B of the amended anti-defection law.
The SEC which had reserved the verdict has on February 19 passed the order after the High Court disposed of a case in this regard.