Patna: The new Bihar cabinet in its first meeting on Monday authorised chief minister Nitish Kumar to decide on convening a fresh assembly session and asked the assembly secretariat to remove Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislator Awadh Bihari Choudhary from the speaker’s post, a day after Kumar severed ties with the RJD and took oath as CM for the ninth time.
A meeting was also held between Kumar, his two new deputies – Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha – and BJP and Janata Dal (United) leaders for further inductions into the cabinet. A total of eight ministers, three from the JD(U), three from the BJP, one from the Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) led by former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and an independent, took oath on Sunday.
Earlier on Monday morning, BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav, Manjhi and former deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad served a no-confidence motion against speaker Choudhary.
Discussions have started on choosing a new speaker, who is likely to be from the BJP, said people aware of developments. BJP leaders Nand Kishore and Amarendra Pratap Singh are tipped to be the possible candidates, they said.
In 2020, when the JD(U)-BJP combine had won the assembly elections and remained in power for close to two years before Kumar left the coalition to join hands with the RJD, the assembly speaker was BJP’s Vijay Kumar Sinha, who is now deputy CM.
On January 18, a cabinet chaired by Kumar, who was then heading the Grand Alliance government, approved the start of the budget session of the state legislature on February 5. With that government falling and a new formation in place, it is likely the new government will seek a floor test on February 12, with the budget session likely to begin on February 15, said leaders of the JD(U), seeking anonymity.
The new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state has the support of 128 legislators – 45 from Kumar’s JD(U), 78 from the BJP, four from HAM and one independent – in an assembly of 243 members.
