Bihar: Assembly adjourned for day as BJP keeps up stir

Opposition BJP disrupted proceedings to press their demands, including deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav’s resignation following a charge sheet filed against him by the CBI recently.

Both Houses of the Bihar legislature were on Tuesday adjourned after scanty business, as members of the Opposition BJP disrupted proceedings to press their demands, including deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav’s resignation following a charge sheet filed against him by the CBI recently.

Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav addresses media persons outside Bihar Assembly. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

Yadav hit back, claiming that the charge sheet in land for jobs case was “not the first one against me and unlikely to be the last” even as he accused the BJP of “welcoming with garlands” NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal who recently became ministers in Maharashtra despite being accused in corruption cases.

The RJD leader, who spoke to journalists after pandemonium had forced adjournment for the day of both Houses, also pointed out that the alleged scam took place when his father and party president Lalu Prasad was the railway minister and he was a minor and years away from entering active politics.

No sooner than the House assembled at 11 am, BJP MLAs entered the well raising slogans and a few of them tried to upturn the table meant for the reporting staff and placed chairs on it.

A heated exchange took place between education minister Chandrashekhar and former minister Pramod Kumar, and marshals were called to stand in the way of the latter who walked menacingly towards the treasury benches.

Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary tried to run the House amid the pandemonium before telling the Opposition members that “such behaviour is reprehensible and is tantamount to a blot on democracy”.

The Speaker, thereafter, announced that the House would reassemble after lunch hour, at 2 pm.

In the second half, the House proceedings continued only for 10 minutes before the Speaker adjourned the proceedings for the day amid protests from the BJP members.

Later, talking to reporters outside the assembly, BJP’s Sanjay Sarougi and leader of Opposition in the assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, said BJP would continue its demand for resignation of the deputy CM. “Either the deputy CM should resign or CM Nitish Kumar should sack him. Unless that happens, we will not allow the house to run,” they said.

Saraogi taunted Kumar for having brought Yadav to the assembly the day before in his own car “just for the sake of protecting his chair”. “We cannot believe he is the same man who used to make his ministers resign merely on the basis of FIR. In this case, there is a charge sheet,” he said.

The land for jobs case pertains to people allegedly given employment in the railways during the tenure of Lalu Prasad as the railway minister from 2004-09 in lieu of land gifted or sold at cheap rates to Yadav’s family and their associates. Both RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi are among those named in the fresh charge sheet filed by the CBI.

Meanwhile, BJP announced that it will stage a march from the historic Gandhi Maidan to the Vidhan Sabha on July 13 in support of demands raised by teacher’s job aspirants, which include restoration of domicile policy, regularisation of non-commissioned teachers and recruitment, without any competitive tests, of those who have cleared CTET or BTET.