Veteran Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Awadh Bihari Choudhary was on Friday, August 26, elected as the Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Chaudhary had filed his papers on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, and several other members of the multi-party Mahagathbandhan.
The post had fallen vacant after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Kumar Sinha resigned as speaker on Wednesday, 24 August, after members of the ruling alliance moved a no-confidence vote against him.
"Bowing before majority, I resign as speaker," Sinha said after initially refusing to resign.
Even while resigning, he created tensions by nominating Janata Dal (United) leader Narendra Narayan Yadav to be the interim speaker for the session instead of Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari. However, the government disregarded his choice and chose Hazari to preside over the session.
The Trust Vote
On the same day, the Bihar government proved its majority in a floor test with the support of 160 MLAs in the 243-member Assembly.
BJP MLAs had walked out of the state Assembly shortly before the trust vote began.
In a speech that lasted for around half an hour, Kumar said that he was "pressured" into becoming chief minister after the 2020 polls.
"After the 2020 polls, I was ready for a Chief Minister from the BJP since they had more MLAs. But there was serious pressure on me to continue as chief minister. They said you become chief minister. So, I finally agreed," the JD(U) chief said.
Hours before the trust vote, the homes of four RJD leaders, Sunil Singh, Ashfaque Karim, Faiyaz Ahmed, and Subodh Rai, were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged 'land-for-jobs' scam.
The move was condemned by several party leaders as a calculated one that was directed at undermining the RJD and JD(U)-led alliance's strength in the trust vote.
On Wednesday, the central agency had also launched fresh raids at 25 locations in Patna, Madhubani, Kathar, Delhi, and Gurugram, including at an under-construction mall in Gurugram that is purportedly being built by a firm owned by Deputy CM Yadav.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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