The Congress on Thursday suspended five of its MLAs in Haryana for allegedly voting against its candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections in March.

The suspended members are Shalley Chaudhary, Renu Bala, Jarnail Singh, Mohammad Illyas and Mohammad Israil.

They were suspended for allegedly violating organisational discipline, state Congress chief Rao Narender Singh said. The Congress has 37 MLAs in a 90-member Assembly.

The party had issued a show-cause notice to the legislators for alleged cross-voting during the Rajya Sabha polls, The Hindu reported.

Polling for the two seats in the Upper House of Parliament in the state was held on March 16. Sanjay Bhatia from the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had won one of the seats.

Congress’ candidate Karamvir Boudh won the second seat, defeating BJP-backed Independent candidate Satish Nandal by one vote. Boudh had been expected to win the seat with a comfortable margin.

Chaudhary, Bala and Singh had denied the allegations, The Hindu reported.