Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 11: The special session of the Bihar Assembly after the “Mahagathbandhan” ministry was installed in the office is expected to start from August 24 and the chief minister Nitish Kumar may seek the vote of trust in his government the next day.
The “Mahagathbandhan” government in Bihar headed by the Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar was installed in the office on Wednesday but it has refused to rush with the trust vote till BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha remained the speaker.
Even though on paper the Mahagathbandhan ministry enjoys a very comfortable majority, 164 members in support in the 243-member State Assembly, 42 MLAs more than the halfway mark, the speaker can play a very crucial role during the vote of confidence and his ruling on its outcome, even if it is controversial, remains final till the chair’s decision is contested in the court of law. But the survival of the ministry till such time becomes critical. The Nitish Kumar – Tejashwi Yadav duo has decided to get rid of Sinha as the speaker before it go for the trust vote, it is learnt.
As many as 55 Mahagathbandhan MLAs on Wednesday submitted notice for expressing no-confidence in the speaker. Since under the rule it required to give 15 days’ notice before the no trust vote against the speaker can be taken up, Kumar has suggested the governor to convene the special session of the Assembly on August 24 to seek a trust vote in his ministry, official sources said.
It is only after the new speaker is elected in place of Sinha that the Kumar ministry would seek the trust vote. The first thing after the session is convened would be take up the no trust vote against the speaker. Sinha may decide to quit before facing the motion in the Assembly, depending on what advice he is given by the BJP central. If he quits, the only task remaining would be elect a new speaker which would likely to be from Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and the vote of trust in the Kumar ministry to be taken up the next day.
“The motion against Sinha will be taken up by the House when it meets to enable Nitish Kumar to move a trust vote,” senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said. “As per rules, a Speaker can be removed from office by a resolution of the Assembly passed by a majority,” said Choudhary. “The Speaker’s motive was suspicious. He refused to go by convention to resign from the post (after the change in government),” another JD(U) leader said.
Sinha so far is non-committal about his future course of action. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sinha said, “As long as I hold this post, won’t make a statement outside.” He further said, “The CM has sent a letter. He has told us to convene the Assembly session. The secretary has all details, once we get the file, we will know more,” he further said.
A notice signed by several MLAs of the Grand Alliance was submitted to the assembly secretariat on Wednesday evening expressing no-confidence in the speaker hours after Kumar and Yadav were sworn-in as chief minister and his deputy. The cabinet, however, is likely to be expanded soon comprising leaders of the JDU, RJD, Congress and others before the trust vote is taken up in the Assembly, party sources said.
Nitish Kumar and Speaker Sinha haven’t had the best relationship even before this. In June, JDU had skipped a session in which its then-ally BJP sought to discuss who was the “best legislator.” The RJD and Congress had also boycotted the proceedings after Speaker Sinha didn’t permit a debate on the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme. The JDU’s opposition to the scheme was one of its many disagreements with the BJP. The Speaker said a discussion on that wasn’t correct as the issue wasn’t a state subject.