RJD forces voting on home dept budget, left red-faced

The Opposition in Bihar was left humbled in the Legislative Assembly on Friday after it forced a voting on the budgetary demand of the home department, which chief minister Nitish Kumar heads, but lost by a huge margin, with 113 votes in favour and just 60 against.

The Opposition in Bihar was left humbled in the Legislative Assembly on Friday after it forced a voting on the budgetary demand of the home department, which chief minister Nitish Kumar heads, but lost by a huge margin, with 113 votes in favour and just 60 against.

RJD legislators interacts with the media outside the Bihar assembly on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

Despite the apparent comfortable strength with the treasury benches, Opposition members raised their pitch during the voice vote to match the loud response. Though Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha ruled in favour of the treasury benches and repeated the voice vote thrice, opposition leaders demanded voting, which was done through physical counting.

While the chief minister is in Lucknow to participate in the swearing-in ceremony for his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath, leader of Opposition Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav was also not present at the time of voting.

After the voting, parliamentary affairs ,inister Vijay Kumar Choudhary was quick to take a swipe. “If the Opposition does not see the writing on the wall and wants to get itself humiliated, not much can be done,” he said.

Giving the government reply after two-and-a-half hour debate on the budgetary demand of home department, in-charge minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav spoke about restructuring police administration by dividing the state into 12 police zones to make the chain of command more effective and easy.

On Opposition’s criticism of hooch tragedies in the state despite prohibition, the minister said even during the 1998-2005 period, such incidents had taken place and deaths had been reported, while similar incidents had also taken place in states where there is no prohibition. “It happens as wrongdoers are everywhere. Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code have been there for decades, but crime still takes place. Law alone is not enough. It is the collective responsibility of all. Those who supported prohibition at the time of its imposition are today criticising,” he said.

Earlier, RJD chief whip Lalit Yadav and party leader Ramanuj Prasad mentioned the recent spat between the chief minister and the Speaker, describing it as the “second black day” after the police action against legislators inside the House last year.