Nitish wins trust vote

PATNA: The Nitish Kumar government on Friday won the crucial floor test in the Bihar Assembly, securing 131 votes against the opposition’s 108.

Four members in the 243-member house could not vote, reducing the total strength of the house during the trust vote to 239.

With the effective strength of the House reduced to 239 during voting, Bihar’s new government needed 120 votes to win the confidence vote.

While Raj Bhallav Yadav of the RJD could not attend as he is in jail, BJP’S Anand Shankar Pandey was absent as he is undergoing medical treatment outside the state. Congress’ Sudarshan could not vote due to technical reasons as he was out of the House when the doors were shut for lobby division.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary did not participate in the voting.

CM Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi did not take part in the voting as both are members of the Legislative Council. However, they were present in the house.

In the voting under lobby division, members in favour of the confidence vote went inside one lobby where they signed a register; those against it headed for another lobby and signed a register.

At the end, the speaker announced the result of the trust vote, with 131 in favour of the NDA and 108 against it.

The 131 votes in favour of Nitish Kumar comprised JD(U) 70, BJP 52, HAM 1, RLSP 2, LJP 2 and Independent 4.

The 108 votes against it comprised RJD 79, Congress 26 and CPI-ML 3.

The speaker’s effort to decide the fate of the confidence motion through voice vote failed twice following shouting from both the treasury and the opposition benches.

Senior RJD MLA Abdul Bari Siddiqui demanded secret voting but was rejected by the speaker.

At the end of the confidence vote, the speaker announced its adjournment for an indefinite period.

BHUBANESWAR: Intensifying its campaign against Biju Janata Dal president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Odisha unit of BJP on Friday lodged a complaint with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking a probe into Patnaik's poll expenditure.

"We have requested the ED to probe into Patnaik's poll expenditure and from where did he got the amount to spend in the elections. As the Chief Minister has already dubbed the BJP'S charges are false and malicious, we have sought the ED help," BJP state vice-president Samir Mohanty told reporters.

The BJP alleged that there was lot of discrepancies in the poll expenditure of Patnaik, who won from Hinjili assembly segment in 2014.

Mohanty said the people of Odisha have right to know the source of the ruling BJD'S funding. "We doubt, the BJD has received funds from chitfund companies. They have spent such money in the 2014 general elections," said BJP spokesman Golak Mohapatra.

The BJP alleged that while Patnaik showed one figure as his poll expenditure, the BJD in its documents showed another figure for Hinjili assembly segment in its affidavits.

Patnaik had signed in both the affidavits as a candidate in Hinjili and as the president of the BJD.

Earlier, the BJP had lodged a compliant against Patnaik before the Election Commission of India and Income Tax department. The Orissa High Court yesterday had adjourned to Monday the hearing on a bunch of pleas alleging discrepancies in the poll expenses of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his party BJD.

The BJP had been demanding disqualification of Patnaik as a legislator alleging that he had filed false poll affidavit before the Election Commission of India.