New Delhi: The Nitish Kumar-led ‘Mahagathbandhan’ alliance will undergo a floor test today in Bihar Legislative Assembly where it will prove its majority. Ahead of the floor test, Bihar Assembly speaker, Vijay Kumar Sinha, against whom a no-trust motion has been moved by MLAs of the Mahagathbandhan, said that he will not step down from the post.
After walking out of the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this month, Nitish Kumar joined hands with the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) and took the oath as Bihar CM for the 8th time while Tejashwi Yadav was sworn-in as his deputy. The newly formed cabinet on August 10 had passed a proposal to call a special session of the House on August 24 to prove their majority.
Having 164 legislators on its side, the Mahagathbandhan seems to have an easy way in crossing the halfway mark of 122 MLAs in the Assembly in today’s floor test.
Soon after the BJP ran out of majority numbers following alliance split with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, JD(U), the Mahagathbandhan leaders brought a no-confidence motion against Assembly Speaker Sinha who had support of just 77 legislators from his party.
On Monday, RJD demanded that the Speaker should resign in view of the no-confidence motion brought against him by the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ earlier this month. RJD state spokesperson Shakti Singh Yadav said in a statement that as per the Vidhan Sabha rules Sinha cannot preside over the special session convened on August 24 when the new government is also scheduled to prove its majority on the floor.
Despite calls by Mahagathbandhan MLAs for Sinha’s resignation, the Speaker on Tuesday said that he will not step down from the post.
Making an announcement from inside the Assembly premises, the senior BJP leader said, “I view the no-confidence motion as springing from a lack of trust, not in me, but the Chair itself. The notice of the motion received at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat has done away with rules, regulations and parliamentary niceties.”
The Mahagathbandhan is understood to have agreed upon the name of veteran RJD leader Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as the new Speaker.