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Bihar MLAs of ruling alliance move no-confidence notice against Speaker
The motion against VK Sinha, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, will be the first to be taken up by the House when it meets to enable Nitish Kumar move a trust vote.
At least 50 legislators of Bihar’s Grand Alliance shot off a notice for removal of assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha soon after Nitish Kumar stepped down as the chief minister of the NDA government on Tuesday, a leader of the Janata Dal (United) said on Wednesday.
“The notice signed by more than 50 MLAs was sent through an email on Tuesday and a hard copy of the same was submitted to the assembly secretariat on Wednesday,” said Bihar’s former parliamentary affairs minister and JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.
The motion against VK Sinha, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, will be the first to be taken up by the House when it meets to enable Nitish Kumar move a trust vote. Under Article 179 (c) of the Constitution, an assembly speaker can be removed from office by a resolution of the assembly by a majority vote.
JD(U) leaders swung into action after they learnt that the speaker had hurriedly convened a meeting of the five-member ethics committee, headed by BJP legislator Ram Narayan Mandal on Tuesday, and got a fresh report submitted on the ruckus in the assembly during the enactment of the Special Armed Police Act in March last year, a senior leader from the Grand Alliance said.
“We got suspicious about the motive of the speaker as he refused to go by the convention to resign from the post. He called an urgent meeting of the ethics committee and got a fresh report, which could lead to disqualification of several members of the RJD, Congress and Left parties on the charges of indulging in violence in the assembly in March 2021,” said a former state minister and JD(U) leader, requesting anonymity.
“The report was so devastating that it could have led to disqualification of several members,” said RJD legislator Ram Vishun Singh, one of the five members of the committee who refused to sign the fresh report, citing factual flaws. “I wonder why the speaker asked to submit a fresh report when the committee had submitted its final report in February this year.”
A deputy secretary rank officer of the assembly said he was asked to submit the report to the speaker at his residential office on Wednesday morning.
“If the speaker somehow managed to get the report laid on the floor of the House and approved the disqualification of members, the number of which have gone up to 32, it would have been difficult for the Grand Alliance to prove its majority,” said former Congress MLA Harkhu Jha.
It would have taken a prolonged legal battle to restore the membership of suspended legislators, Jha added.
He further explained that according to assembly rules, since a no-confidence notice has been served to the speaker, any decision taken by him until disposal of the motion would be null and void.
Acting secretary of the assembly, Pawan Kumar Pandey, said he has no information if Sinha had offered to resign from the post of speaker.
Assembly speaker VK Sinha refused to comment despite repeated calls and text message by HT. Acting secretary of the assembly Pawan Kumar Pandey said he was not aware if Sinha intended to quit on his own.
