New Delhi: Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha on Tuesday announced that he would not resign despite a no-confidence motion moved by MLAs of the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’, as reported by news agency PTI. The no-confidence motion brought by the 'Mahagathbandhan' was termed as against the rules and Sinha claimed that the motion was based on “false” charges against him.
“In the no-confidence motion, which seems to have cared little for rules (‘sansadiya niyam’), I have been accused of partisanship (‘pakshapat’) and a dictatorial attitude (‘tanashahi’). Both allegations are blatantly false. Resigning in such circumstances will hurt my self respect,” he told reporters.
The Speaker, however, did not comment further when asked what was going to be his party’s stance on Wednesday, with the numbers in the House clearly stacked against the BJP.
“I am at present occupying the Chair and shall be bound by the norms associated with the constitutional office. My priority will be to discharge my duties in accordance with rules,” Sinha added.
The Nitish Kumar-led government will face a floor test to prove its majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on August 24, ANI reported. The Bihar Cabinet expansion is likely to happen on August 16. Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the eighth time on Wednesday while RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.
"The motion against Sinha will be taken up by the House when it meets to enable Nitish Kumar to move a trust vote," PTI quoted senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary as saying.
"As per rules, a Speaker can be removed from office by a resolution of the assembly passed by a majority," he said.
There are only two things to be done in the Assembly. The first is to get the majority of the government and the second is to vote on the no-confidence motion against the Speaker. Since the ruling party has given a no-confidence motion notice against the Speaker, it would like to conduct the meeting from Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari instead of the Speaker. But in case it is taken second, Vijay Sinha will conduct the process of securing the trust vote of the government (if he has not resigned before that).