The Hindu : 3 BJD MPs suspended from party

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Saturday, Aug 10, 2002

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3 BJD MPs suspended from party

By Our Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR JULY 9. The Orissa Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal president, Naveen Patnaik, today suspended three of his party MPs for "indulging in anti-party activities''. The three MPs are Pravat Kumar Samantray, Jagannath Mallick and Kumudini Patnaik.

The BJD secretary general, Damodar Rout, said that Arjun Charan Sethy, leader of the BJD Parliamentary Party, had submitted the necessary papers relating to the suspension of the three MPs to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi, earlier in the day. Mr. Samantray represented the Kendrapara Parliamentary constituency, Mr. Mallick the Jajpur seat and Ms. Kumudini Aska, the seat vacated by the BJD president after he took over as Chief Minister.

Mr. Patnaik had suspended the three MPs fearing that they were working together to engineer a split in the BJD Parliamentary Party, in the wake of the resignation of the senior party leader, Ramakrushna Patnaik, from the State Cabinet on Tuesday.

The BJD had 10 MPs in the Lok Sabha and a split would have been possible if at least four of them could have joined hands and left the party to form a separate bloc. Significantly, Ms. Kumudini is the wife of Ramakrushna Patnaik, who resigned from the Ministry when he was divested of the Finance portfolio and given the charge of Agriculture during the Tuesday's Cabinet reshuffle.

While her husband has suddenly grown into a vocal critic of the Naveen Patnaik Government, Ms. Kumudini had also embarrassed the BJD president a few months ago.

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3 BJD MPs suspended from party