Bihar: No-confidence motion moved against Assembly Speaker as he refuses to resign
NEW DELHI: In a major aimed at foiling the bid of Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who is also a BJP MLA, to create ‘obstruction' in the procedure of majority proving by the newly formed government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the House, the ruling alliance has moved a no-confidence motion against Sinha, who refused to resign.
The decision to move noconfidence motion against Sinha was taken in the first cabinet meeting, which was held soon after the oath-taking ceremony of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday, which delayed the convening of the House to August 24.
As per the practice, Speaker of the House resigns soon after the formation of a new government, but in case of Sinha, who refused to resign, the no-confidence motion has been moved to restrict him from chairing the Assembly for seeking trust vote.
It's the no-confidence motion against the Speaker that forced the ruling alliance to call the special session of the House on August 24-25 as the motion could be taken up only after 14 days from the date it was served on.
The motion will be taken first on the day the House convenes and the speaker himself wouldn't be able to preside over the House when the noconfidence motion is taken up against him. In his absence, deputy speaker Maheshwar Hazari, a JD-U MLA, will preside over the House.
Notably, the ruling alliance has the numbers required to remove Sinha.The ‘Mahagathbandhan' has a total of 164 members in the assembly, while BJP has 77 MLAs to its side.
Commenting on the development, a RJD leader said, “The Speaker's motive was suspicious as he refused to go by convention to resign from the post after the change in government. He is setting a new standard of embarrassment.”