Bhubaneswar, Odisha Assembly on Tuesday issued show cause notices to four ruling BJD MLAs and sought clarification as to why they should not be disqualified on the grounds of defection.

Assembly Secretary Dashrathi Satapathy issued notices to Nimapada MLA Sami Ranjan Dash, Hindol MLA Simrani Nayak, Athamallik MLA Ramesh Sai and Soro MLA Parshuram Dhada.

All sitting MLAs have been asked to reply by May 27.

All four MLAs had resigned from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and joined the opposition BJP after they were not given tickets by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the upcoming elections.

Earlier, the Odisha Assembly had disqualified two BJD MLAs - Arabinda Dhal (Jayadev) and Premanand Nayak (Telkoi) after they quit the party.