Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: Nine BJD councillors from Keonjhar Municipality today urged the State Election Commission not to take action against them under the anti-defection law.

On December 28, the nine councillors had dislodged the chairperson of the municipality, Meena Majhi, by voting along with six Congress councillors against her. As the anti-defection law for the urban local bodies was passed in the Assembly on December 19, the BJD plans to move the commission to disqualify these rebel councillors for defying party whip by not turning up on the voting day.

The nine rebel councillors today met state election commissioner R.N. Senapati and pleaded him not to take action against them, as they had resigned from the party in two batches, much before the anti-defection law came into force.

Councillor Dillip Behera said: "We had given the no-trust notice on November 12. Besides, we had resigned from the party in two batches on December 9 and January 2, much before the anti-defection law came into force. We had urged the commission, which is competent to decide the disqualification issue, not to take action against us."

Another councillor Sushree Sangeeta said: "We should not face any action as we had resigned much earlier and given the no-trust notice prior to the enactment of the law."

However, BJD authorities did not accept the plea. "We do not know when did they resign. They had never informed us about their resignation. They have also not informed it to the returning officer while moving the no-trust motion," said BJD spokesman Pratap Keshari Deb.

Deb said the party was examining all aspects and would shortly approach the state election commission to disqualify the rebel councillors for defying the party whip.

The BJD has taken it as a prestige issue as the chairperson belonging to the ruling party was dislodged on the day chief minister Naveen Patnaik visited Keonjhar.

However, the ruling party seems to be in a dilemma over taking action against the nine councillors who joined hands with Congress to dislodge the chairperson, as the rebels claim that they had quit the party before the anti-defection law came into effect.

A party insider said BJD was also exploring the possibility to win support of six Congress and the lone BJP councillor to retain the chairperson's seat. In the 21-member civic body, now there are six members from BJD (after the exit of nine councillors), while six are from Congress and one from BJP.