The Odisha Assembly Speaker on Thursday disqualified two legislators- Premananda Nayak and Arabinda Dhali under anti-defection law. While Dhali was the MLA from Jayadev constituency, Nayak was the legislator of Telkoi, and both of them had recently joined BJP after quitting BJD. A notification on the disqualification of both the MLAS has been issued by the Odisha Legislative Assembly. As per official sources, the disqualification of the two leaders will come into effective immediately. They have been disqualified in exercise of the powers conferred upon the Speaker under paragraph 6(1) of the tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India. The Speaker decided to disqualify Dhali and Nayak after MLA Prasanta Kumar Muduli filed a petition on March 18 seeking disqualification of two members as they voluntarily gave up primary membership from the BJD from which they were elected to the Assembly. In this regard, a notice was reportedly sent to Dhali and Nayak for hearing on the petition. However, both of them failed to respond to the communication in this regard and did not appear before the Speaker for personal hearing following which they were disqualified to be members of Odisha Assembly with immediate effect. While Premananda Nayak said it will have no impact, Dhali seems disappointed citing that it’s a one-sided decision as he was not given an opportunity to present his side.