Former CM Jitanram Manjhi was made the Protem Speaker. He wanted to elect the speaker by voice vote, but the opposition was not persuaded.
NDA candidate Vijay Kumar Sinha was elected as the speaker despite all the efforts of the Grand Alliance in the Bihar Assembly. At the last moment, the JDU whip provided the Speaker’s chair to the BJP. There was a lot of uproar before this election. Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is serving sentence in the fodder scam case in Ranchi, about 350 km from Patna, also tried to get the BJP MLAs in his favour, but it did not work.
Uproar in Assembly before voting
The new speaker Sinha is a BJP MLA from Lakhisarai. He has also been a minister. There was a lot of uproar in the assembly before his election. Opposition MPs came to the well and started opposing CM Nitish Kumar’s presence. The ruckus continued for two hours.
Former CM Jitanram Manjhi was made the Protem Speaker. He wanted to elect the speaker by voice vote, but the opposition was not persuaded. The opposition was also adamant that when CM Nitish Kumar and two ministers Ashok Chaudhary and Mukesh Sahni are not members of the new assembly, they should be expelled from the House during the voting process and voting should be held through a secret ballot.
CM Nitish Kumar walks out
Members of the opposition sat in the well and started shouting slogans. When the opposition’s protest did not stop, Protem Speaker Manjhi asked Legislative Council member Nitish Kumar and both ministers Chaudhary and Sahani to go out. The house was adjourned for about 5 minutes at 12 noon.
126 votes in favour of Sinha and 114 votes for the opposition
After this, when the House assembled again, the opposition continued to demand secret voting. The pro tem speaker made the members of the ruling and opposition stand alternately and got the votes counted. After this, at about one-quarter of the afternoon, the Protem Speaker declared Sinha as the NDA candidate. There were 126 votes in favour of Sinha and 114 votes against. Manjhi did not vote as he was a pro tem speaker, while two BSP MLAs were absent.
Nitish congratulated the speaker, Tejashwi said – have to be fair
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a message to Vijay Sinha said that he has to conduct the work as per rules. “You have also been a minister, confident that you will carry out the job of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly well. All people have the right to speak, the new president will conduct the proceedings as per rules. I congratulate the new speaker.”
Tejashwi Yadav also congratulated Sinha.
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