Bhubaneswar: President of Bharatiya Janata Party’s State unit, Basant Panda on Tuesday expelled nine functionaries from the party in Sambalpur for anti-party activities for six years.
They are -State executive committee member Girish Patel, district vice president Sameer Babu, Aswini Majhi, Kanhu Sharma, Shiva Diwan (all from party’s YuvaMorcha), Prince Soni, Gopal Agarwal, Raja Barad and Mantu Agarwal.
Party sources said, all the expelled were found to be involved in the disorderly conduct against party vice president Sameer Mohanty on Sunday.
"Our State president has expelled nine members from primary membership of the party for six years for their anti-party activities," BJP State general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said.
Condemning the expelled members' 'mistrustful' activities, party national general secretary Suresh Pujari said, "Five had voted against the party's decision. It is more harmful for the democracy when some people use arms to take control of the power."
Asked about the reassessment of the matter, he said the party might reconsider their case if satisfied with their replies.
Meanwhile, one of the expelled members alleged that the action was taken to satisfy interests of some party members.
"The party has expelled old members like us to serve vested interest of some party members. The party is taking action against the innocent workers and by doing this it is thinking to do everything what it wants," Girish Patel, an expelled member stated.
Eleven others including party’s senior leader and former minister Jayanarayan Mishra were suspended from the party on Sunday for six years for ‘hatching conspiracy’ against Mohanty. Some party activists had attacked Mohanty, an observer for ZP chairperson election, at the party office in Sambalpur.
Nine zilla parishad members of Sambalpur district, newly-elected zilla parisahd chairperson Radhashyam Barik and BJP State Executive member Nauri Nayak were also suspended from BJP by the party chief of the State unit.