BJP veteran Prem Kumar set to be new speaker of Bihar assembly

He is the sole legislator to have filed the nomination and thus set for election to the coveted post unopposed.

Veteran BJP leader and one of few leaders in Bihar who started off during the JP Movement, Prem Kumar on Monday filed his nomination papers for election to the post of assembly Speaker in Bihar.

Senior BJP leader Prem Kumar flashing victory sign after filling his nomination paper for Bihar assembly speaker during the Winter Session of the Bihar Assembly in Patna on Monday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

He is the sole legislator to have filed the nomination and thus set for election to the coveted post unopposed.

The filing of nomination took place before the secretary in-charge of the Vidhan Sabha, Khyati Singh, in presence of Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, in addition to senior JD(U) leader and parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.

With the NDA enjoying a brute majority in the 243-strong assembly, with 202 seats, the election of Prem Kumar, an eight-term MLA from Gaya Town, is being seen as a foregone conclusion.

The election of the speaker is scheduled on Tuesday. Prem Kumar is expected to be elected unopposed as the Mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD, Congress and the Left, has shied away from fielding a candidate.

People aware of the developments prior to Kumar’s filing of nomination say that JD(U) too had lobbied hard for appointing one of its 85 MLAs as the new speaker. It ad contented that since CM Nitish Kumar has ceded home portfolio to his deputy from BJP, the party should get the speaker post.

However, the BJP, which has 89 MLAs, as against the JD(U)’s tally of 85, put its foot down.

The JD(U), which has been in power since 2005, had kept the post of the speaker with itself in the first three tenures.