Bihar Assembly: Floor Test For Nitish Govt Today; Speaker Says Won't Resign Despite No-Trust Motion

A face off between the ruling JD(U)-RJD alliance and Opposition BJP seems to be on the cards in the Bihar Assembly with a no-trust motion against Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, a senior BJP leader.

The Nitish Kumar-led ?Mahagathbandhan? government will also face a floor test to prove its majority in the Assembly on the opening day of the two-day special session today.

Among the main agendas of the Bihar Legislative Assembly today after Speaker?s opening address is laying of the report of the Committee of the Legislative Assembly on Table of the House, a floor test of the Grand Alliance government and discussion on no-confidence motion.

Awadh Bihari Chaudhary of RJD is most likely to become the new Speaker.

Striking a defiant note, Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha on Tuesday declared that he will not step down in the wake of a no-confidence motion moved by MLAs of the ruling Mahagathbandhan.

Sinha, a senior BJP leader, made the averment inside the Assembly premises, less than 24 hours before the House will hold a special session in which the seven-party coalition will prove its majority.

I view the no-confidence motion as springing from a lack of trust, not in me, but the Chair itself. The notice of the motion received at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat has done away with rules, regulations and parliamentary niceties, he read from a written statement before a posse of journalists.

?Bound by the Chair, I feel it is incumbent upon me to reject such a notice. Some baseless and personal allegations have been made in the notice against me. My style of functioning has been called undemocratic and dictatorial, he said. The Speaker asserted that if he resigns, faced with those baseless charges, it will not only hurt his self-respect but also be tantamount to remaining a mute spectator to the assault on the parliamentary system. Thus, I will oppose the no-confidence motion and not resign. I will say what I have to say inside the House without any fear or conflict,? said Sinha.

As per his penchant for poetry, he signed off with a verse in Hindi, a rough translation of which says: Everything is at stake, but I cannot stop. I may be caused to break, but not bend. The ruling dispensation, comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar?s JD(U), RJD, Congress and the Left, was aghast.

(With PTI inputs)

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