Ahead of Manjhi's floor test, Nitish's JD(U) recognised as main opposition party in Bihar

Patna: Ahead of Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s floor test, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary on Thursday granted the status of principal opposition party to JD(U) in place of the BJP, which slammed the move as “arbitrary”. The Speaker granted JD(U) leader Vijay Chaudhary the status of leader of opposition in place of BJP’s Nand Kishore Yadav. “The Assembly secretariat has to act according to the numerical strength and since the JD(U) had sought the status of the main opposition, we had no reason to deny them considering their numbers,” Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_2109217” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, after being expelled by party President Sharad Yadav, has been declared as an unattached member in the JD(U) Legislative Assembly. He has to prove his majority in the House on Friday. The JD(U) will also be given status of main opposition in the Legislative Council. “On the basis of numerical strength, we have no option but to recognise JD(U) as main opposition party in the Legislative Council,” Chairman of Council Awdesh Narayan Singh told PTI. Meanwhile, a furious BJP sat on dharna in front of the Assembly entrance to protest the Speaker’s “arbitrary” decision. “This is for the first time in the country that a party — JD(U) — will sit in both treasury and opposition sides,” Nand Kishore Yadav said. He contended that the BJP was inclined to support Manjhi on issues but this did not mean that the party was joining Manjhi’s government. “Even Nitish Kumar being in the NDA had supported Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential election while other constituents had voted for P A Sangma. So giving issue-based support does not mean a party joining a government,” Yadav argued. JD(U) Legislature Party leader Vijay Chaudhary had on Wednesday during an all party meeting urged the Speaker to allow it to sit in opposition gallery as it has decided to oppose trust vote to be sought by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi tomorrow. “Assembly is run by rules and laws and not anybody’s whims…on the basis of ‘sankhya bal’ (numerical strength) there was no reason to deny JD(U) request to grant it status of  principal opposition party,” the Speaker said. Accordingly, JD(U) has been given status of principal Opposition party and its leader Vijay Chaudhary has been recognised as leader of opposition in the House, the Speaker said. In the 243-member Bihar Assembly whose effective strength at present is 233, JD(U) has 110 MLAs including Speaker, one unattached member in Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, BJP 87, RJD 24, Congress 5, CPI 1, Independent 5 while 10 seats are vacant. PTI