Bihar Assembly elects BJP’s Vijay Sinha as Speaker amid ruckus by Opposition

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vijay Kumar Sinha was today elected as Speaker of the Bihar assembly by a majority vote. NDA candidate Sinha got 126 votes as against 114 polled in favour of RJD’s Awadh Bihari Chaudhary who was fielded by the Grand Alliance. The election of the Speaker was marred by ruckus caused by the opposition members who protested the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Ashok Chaudhary and Mukesh Sahani on the floor of the House.

The opposition leaders said that the chief minister was a member of the legislative council and therefore he should not have been allowed to be there during voting. The RJD MLAs also opposed the voice vote in the Speaker election, citing the presence of members of the legislative council. RJD MLA Tejashwi Yadav said, “Rules should be followed during the election of the Speaker.”

However, pro tem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi overruled the objection saying, “Those from other House aren’t voting for Speaker election, but no problem in their presence.” “In this very House, we have seen Lalu Yadav ji attend proceedings when he was a member of Lok Sabha and Rabri Devi ji was CM,” Manjhi said.

The opposition also demanded voting by secret ballot but Manjhi turned down that demand and went ahead with headcount.

Vijay Sinha is an MLA from Lakhisarai. In the recently concluded assembly polls, the NDA returned to power by winning 125 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the NDA alliance, pushing JDU to the second position. The RJD emerged as the single largest party in the state by winning 75 seats.