Bihar: BJP MLA Vijay Sinha elected as Bihar Assembly Speaker

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vijay Sinha was on Wednesday elected as the Speaker of Bihar Assembly with a voice vote.

The Mahagathbandhan had declared RJD MLA Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as its candidate for the Speaker post.

Earlier, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs on Wednesday created ruckus in Bihar Assembly, opposing the voice vote in Speaker election, citing the presence of members of the Legislative Council in the House.

RJD MLA Tejashwi Yadav said in the house, "Rules should be followed during the election of the Speaker. This is a blatant violation of the rules. Should we leave the House?"
RJD MLAs showed the rulebook to Protem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Manjhi said, "Those from other House are not voting for Speaker election, but there is no problem in their presence."

"In this very House, we have seen Lalu Yadav ji attend proceedings when he was a member of Lok Sabha and Rabri Devi ji was Chief Minister. There will be no secret voting," he added.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Education Minister Ashok Choudhary were present in the Assembly during the election of Speaker.

The winter session of the 243-member Bihar Assembly is underway until November 27. On the first day of the session on Monday, the members took the oath.

On November 16, Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive term after the NDA won an absolute majority in recently concluded Assembly polls. BJP leaders Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi were sworn in as Bihar Deputy Chief Ministers.

The NDA has secured a majority with 125-seats in the 243-seat strong Bihar Legislative Assembly of which BJP won on 74 seats, Janata Dal (United) on 43 while eight seats were won by two other NDA constituents.

The RJD, on the other hand, emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats while the Congress only won 19 of the 70 seats it had contested.

(ANI)