Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 24: Within hours of the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the houses of some Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders in connection with a two-decade old alleged scam, the newly-formed ‘Mahagathbandhan’ ministry in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar on Wednesday comfortably won the motion of confidence amid a walkout by the opposition BJP.
Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari ordered a headcount upon a request by Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the parliamentary affairs minister, on which altogether 160 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion in the 243-member state Assembly while no vote was cast against the motion. The lone MLA of AIMIM, Akhtarul Iman, whose party is not a part of the ruling alliance, also took part in the exercise and supported the confidence motion.
Just ahead of the voting on the motion, a constitutional requirement upon a change of guard in a state, the members of the BJP, which has been stripped of power as a result of the recent political upheaval in the state after Janata Dal (United) quit the alliance and joined hands with the RJD to form a new ministry, walked out of the House when Nitish Kumar was giving reply to the debate on the confidence vote.
The confidence motion was moved after the speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who belonged to the BJP, resigned from the post after 20 months stint in the Chair. He submitted his resignation and left the House soon after he rejected the ruling alliance’s move to adopt a no-confidence motion against him. Sinha’s resignation comes hours before the newly-formed Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government was to move the confidence motion to prove its majority in the Assembly.
Hours before the trust vote, the homes of several RJD leaders — Sunil Singh, Subodh Rai, Dr Faiyaz Ahmad and Ashfaque Karim — were raided by the CBI in connection with a “land-for-jobs” scam dating back to party chief Lalu Yadav’s tenure as Union Railway minister in the UPA-I government. The raid, some RJD leaders alleged, was the BJP central leadership’s ploy to scare the RJD members from supporting the Nitish Kumar government.
In his reply to debate, Nitish Kumar made indirect references to rebellion by LJP’s Chirag Paswan, allegedly at BJP’s behest, and attempts to cause a split in JD(U) through his former protege RCP Singh. Kumar asserted that he had “no personal ambitions”, rejecting the BJP’s charge that his latest volte face was aimed at becoming the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition camp.
He, nonetheless, spoke of his interactions with leaders from across the country whom he has urged to stay united for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The JD(U) leader also recounted his old association with the BJP and underscored the contrast between the current dispensation and the era of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
Without mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, he said the current dispensation does little except publicity (‘prachar prasar’).” As BJP MLAs protested, he added, “Speak against me. May be this will earn you some rewards from your political bosses.”
In his speech during the debate on the motion of confidence, Tejashwi Yadav – the RJD chief and Kumar’s new deputy, said the new partnership would be “historic”. “This is a never-ending innings, it will be historic. Our partnership will be long. No one is going to be run out,” Yadav said.
Tejashwi Yadav ripped into the BJP, saying, “Are you trying to say that all the property in the country belongs to Tejashwi Yadav? The person who brought the railways into profit is facing cases and those who are selling the railways and the country, nothing will happen to them.”
Yadav also made several strong remarks, accusing the BJP of using the Central investigating agencies whenever it was “scared.” “A narrative is being created. If you join hands with the BJP, then you are Harishchandra (a king from mythology known for his honesty and truthfulness). Else you are a criminal, a rapist, and the ED and the CBI will be set after you,” he said.
“When the BJP fears or loses in a state, it puts ahead its three ‘jamai’ – CBI, ED and IT… When I go to foreign countries, the BJP issues lookout notices against me and when fraudsters like Nirav Modi run away, they don’t do anything.”
Yadav also refuted media reports that the CBI raid at a mall at Gurugram earlier in the day belonged to him. “I am surprised that some media reports are suggesting that the mall where a CBI has raided today in Gurugram belongs to me. I got the papers of the company and found that the company is based in Haryana. What is more interesting is that the mall’s construction was started in the presence of a BJP leader,” Yadav said.
The BJP’s Tarakishore Prasad ripped into Nitish Kumar, his former boss, saying he has lost “political credibility.” The former Deputy Chief Minister to Kumar, mocked Kumar’s “personal ambition to become the prime minister despite not having the ability to become the chief minister on his own steam.”
Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar as the leader of the Mahagathbandhan on August 10, a day after breaking away from the BJP. Sources said he had concerns that the BJP was plotting a repeat of the Maharashtra model — where the Uddhav Thackeray government was dismantled by the rebellion by senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde who is now the Chief Minister.
After the confidence motion was adopted, the proceedings were, subsequently, adjourned till Friday by the deputy speaker who informed the House that on Thursday nomination papers will be filed for election of a new speaker, the post having fallen vacant upon resignation of BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha.