BJP's Vijay Sinha elected Speaker of Bihar Assembly amid Opposition ruckus

PATNA: Amid noisy scenes, engineer-turned-politician Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP was on Wednesday elected Speaker of the Bihar Assembly through voice vote.

This was the first time in the last 51 years when the voice vote was held in the assembly for electing the Speaker.

The RJD-led opposition had put up seven-time MLA Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as the Grand Alliance candidate for the post.

Chaudhary got 114 votes against 126 of BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha, four-time MLA from Lakhisarai.

When the proceedings began, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav and many of his alliance MLAs opposed the presence of CM Nitish Kumar and VIP chief Mukesh Sahni and Ashok K Choudhary in the House without being its members.

They demanded secret voting for the Speaker’s election and rushed to the well of the House.

Amid the ruckus, pro tem speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi said there was no constitutional provision for a secret voting for the Speaker’s election.

Rubbishing the opposition protest, Manjhi said CM Nitish Kumar and the other two leaders cited by the opposition had not participated in the voice vote.

Newly elected Vijay Sinha’s political journey began from the days of his active association with the ABVP. He has been elected to the Lakhisarai seat thrice from BJP.

Sinha served the ministry of labour department in the previous NDA government in the state. He belongs to Bhumihar caste and has replaced the last speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary of JD-U, who also belonged to Sinha’s caste.

Born on June 5, 1967, Sinha’s father Sharada Raman Singh was the headmaster in charge of the Barh high school at Bedhana in Patna.

With Sinha’s election, the number of engineer-turned-politicians occupying three key posts rose to three: CM Nitish Kumar was a qualified engineer before entering politics. Ditto for Awadesh Narayan, chairman of the legislative council.

Who’s the new speaker

Vijay Sinha’s political journey began from the days of his active association with the ABVP. He has been elected to the Lakhisarai seat thrice from BJP.

Sinha served the ministry of labour department in the previous NDA government in the state.

He belongs to Bhumihar caste.