Odisha Congress bid to oust speaker fails

Two of Congress' legislators- Nihar Ranjan Mahananda and Mamata Madhi stay away from house proceedings

The Opposition Congress’ attempt to remove speaker Pradeep Amat on grounds of his alleged unbiased approach in conduct of house proceedings fell flat with the party failing to muster support of 28 MLAs needed to see the motion through.

The Congress got a setback when two of its legislators - Nihar Ranjan Mahananda and Mamata Madhi stayed away from today's proceedings. This is despite the fact that two independent MLAs – Jitu Patnaik and Braja Pradhan backed the Congress in its endeavour to oust the speaker.

While Mahananda abstained from the house citing his preoccupation with the NAC (notified area council) elections at his Attabira constituency, the reasons for Madhi's absence were not known.

Maverick Congress MLA from Kantabanji Santosh Singh Saluja blamed the state Congress leadership for the party's failure.

"The motion to remove the speaker did not succeed due to crisis in state Congress leadership. There is no reason why two of the party legislators should be absent on such an important occasion. We will bring the matter to the knowledge of the Congress party high command”, he said.

Saluja's party colleague and Opposition chief whip Prasad Harichandan, however, differed, claiming moral victory for the Congress despite failure of the proposal.

"The objective was to inform the people of Odisha regarding the speaker's partiality in conduct of business of the house. It is a moral victory for us even though our notice was rejected”, said Harichandan.