Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22: The State Election Commission today disqualified the Keonjhar Municipality's nine councillors, who had got its chairperson defeated during a no-trust motion on December 28.

The BJD was left red-faced in Keonjhar on the day Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik visited the district. The councillors voted against the chairperson, Meena Majhi, despite the party whip asking them to remain absent from the no-trust motion.

This is the first order of the commission after Odisha enacted the law bringing the members of panchayat and urban local bodies under the purview of the Anti-defection Act.

State Election Commission's law officer Madhuri Mishra said the councillors were disqualified under Section 46A (1) (b) of Odisha Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act. It says that a councillor belonging to any political party shall be disqualified if he votes contrary to the direction issued by the party.

BJD leaders said the councillors had been asked to remain absent on the voting day, but they not only remained present at the meeting, but also voted against the chairperson.

The act came into force in last December. The councillors, however, pleaded that they had given the notice for removal of the chairperson much before the law came into force.

"We had sent in our resignation letter to party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik through fax in January last year," said dissident councillor Sushree Sangeeta Nanda.

The decision to disqualify the members will help the BJD quell growing dissidence in various civic bodies across Odisha.

In the 21-member civic body, 14 members were from the BJD, six from the Congress and one from the BJP. Had the party's dissident councillors remained absent, the chairperson would not have been dislodged.

A disqualified councillor said: "We are soliciting legal opinion whether to move the court challenging the commission's order."