After 15 yrs of NDA rule, BJP gets its 1st Speaker in Bihar Assembly
New Delhi: Amid the opposition ruckus over voting for the selection of Bihar assembly Speaker, BJP's legislator Vijay Kumar Sinha was on Wednesday elected as state assembly's Speaker by a majority vote.
Sinha, who was the candidate of the ruling NDA, got 126 votes as against 114 polled in favour of RJD's Awadh Bihari Chaudhary who was fielded by the opposition Grand Alliance after the NDA named Sinha instead of BJP's veteran leader Nand Kishore Yadav for the coveted post. As per sources, the Grand Alliance had not planned to field a candidate if Nand Kishore Yada had been the NDA's nominee.
However, Sinha has become the first BJP MLA in the state to become Speaker as on earlier occasions, the post of Speaker was occupied by JDU legislators.
During the voting for the Speaker, the RJD members created a ruckus and opposed the selection through voice vote citing the presence of members of the legislative council and those who were neither the members of the legislative council nor legislative assembly.
While showing the rulebook to Protem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said that rules should be followed during the voting for the selection of the Speaker and demanded secret voting.
However, Manjhi rejected the Opposition's demand for secret voting in the House and on the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar — who is the member of the legislative council, he said, "Being a leader of the house the CM's presence is legitimate".
Prior to Sinha, the post of Speaker was occupied by JD(U) MLAs since the JD(U)-BJP alliance formed the government in 2005. The JD-U's Uday Narayan Choudhary was Speaker for two terms — 2005-2010 and 2010-2015, while party's Vijay Kumar Choudhary was the Speaker from 2015 to 2020.
Prior to declaration of Sinha's name for the Speaker post, the names of BJP veterans Nand Kishore Yadav and Prem Kumar had been doing the rounds after both the leaders were not inducted into the Cabinet.
However, the BJP top brass decided to maintain a social balance in representation of key posts in the state where caste plays a major role as Sinha – a four-time MLA from Lakhisarai – belongs to the upper caste Bhumihar community.
