BHUBANESWAR: Expelled BJD legislator Prashanta Jagadev is yet to be declared as a non-attached member in the Assembly despite his suspension from the party over three months back for assaulting a BJP worker in front of the NAC office at Balugaon in September, 2021.
The ruling BJD had announced last week that the MLA was automatically expelled from the party as his suspension was not lifted for three months. The announcement came after Jagadev ran over his car into a crowd in front of the block office on March 12 injuring more than 20 persons.
However, his status in the House remains unchanged as the BJD is yet to inform the Speaker of the Assembly regarding his suspension and subsequent automatic expulsion from the party. His seat in the Assembly has been allocated in the BJD block, though it should have been changed.
The issue was raised in the Assembly by leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra. The Congress leader asked the Speaker whether he was informed by the BJD about the development. After repeated queries by Mishra, the Speaker said that he has not received any such letter.
The Speaker, however, said that he received a communication from Khurda SP on March 23 about the arrest of the Chilika MLA. Jagadev was arrested at Bhubaneswar on March 22 and is lodged in the Banpur sub-jail in Khurda.