Miffed over rescheduled Bihar assembly session, opposition to boycott proceedings

Patna: The opposition BJP and its NDA allies will boycott the sitting of Bihar Assembly on Saturday, a holiday, saying that it has been rescheduled so that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar can listen to the Union Budget presentation on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_2645134” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] “BJP and its NDA allies have decided to boycott the sitting of the Assembly on a holiday on Saturday to facilitate the Chief Minister listen to the Budget to be presented in Parliament on Monday,” Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar told reporters. Kumar said he had raised the objection of rescheduling the sitting to an earlier date in the meeting of Business Advisory Committee on Thursday but it was ignored. Earlier, the House approved by a voice vote the proposal of the Business Advisory Committee for rescheduling the House sitting on Saturday in place of Monday. The NDA members did not participate in the voice vote on the proposal read by Speaker Vijay Chaudhary as they were in the Well to press for adjournment motion on law and order situation. Senior BJP MLA and former Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav strongly criticised the decision to reschedule the sitting to Saturday. “Earlier also the Legislative Assembly has conducted its schedule business when general budget is presented in Parliament. This is for the first time a new tradition is being set to facilitate the CM hear the Union budget,” Yadav told reporters. NDA has 58 members in the Bihar House including 53 of BJP, 2 each of LJP and RLSP and one Hindustani Awam Morcha. JD(U), RJD and Congress combine have a strength of 178. PTI