Vijay Kumar Sinha resigns as Bihar assembly Speaker

Striking a defiant note Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha on Tuesday declared that he will not step down in the wake of a noconfidence motion moved by MLAs of the ruling Mahagathbandhan Grand AllianceSinha a senior BJP leader made the averment inside the Assembly premises less than 24 hours before the House will hold a special session in which the sevenparty coalition will prove its majorityldquoI view the noconfidence motion as springing from a lack of trust not in me but the Chair itself The notice of the motion received at the Vidhan Sabha secretariat has done away with rules regulations and parliamentary nicetiesrdquo he read from a written statement before a posse of journalistsAlso readCBI raids RJD MLA in Patna in alleged land for railways jobs caseldquoBound by the Chair I feel it is incumbent upon me to reject such a notice Some baseless and personal allegations have been made in the notice against me My style of functioning has been called undemocratic and dictatorialrdquo he saidThe Speaker asserted that if he resigns faced with those ldquobaseless chargesrdquo it will not only hurt his selfrespect but also be tantamount to remaining a ldquomute spectator to the assault on the parliamentary systemrdquoldquoThus I will oppose the noconfidence motion and not resign I will say what I have to say inside the House without any fear or conflictrdquo said SinhaAs per his penchant for poetry he signed off with a verse in Hindi a rough translation of which says ldquoEverything is at stake but I cannot stop I may be caused to break but not bendrdquoThe ruling dispensation comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumarrsquos JDU RJD Congress and the Left was aghastldquoIt would have been better had he resigned in deference to parliamentary norms He will suffer an ignominious removal if he does not resign Once members of the House have said they do not have trust in him it makes no sense for him to dig in his heelsrdquo minister and JDU leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary who had preceded Sinha as the Speaker told PTIThe views were echoed by Maheshwar Hazari a fellow JDU leader who is currently the Deputy Speaker who said Sinharsquos ldquoobstinacyrdquo went against principles of morality and was most unfortunateldquoNeither the Speaker nor the Deputy Speaker can continue in the Chair once members express their lack of trust The rejection of the notice makes no sense Political power is all about numbers The numbers are against himrdquo said Hazari who is expected to retain his jobRJD spokesperson Shakti Yadav reacted to the development saying The Speaker indeed is undemocratic and dictatorial He seems to think he is above the ConstitutionSinha should not tie himself into knots but make a graceful exit Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore saidThe Mahagathbandhan is understood to have agreed upon the name of veteran RJD leader Awadh Bihari Chaudhary as the new SpeakerThe upcoming session is also likely to witness the replacement of Acting Chairman of the Legislative Council Awadhesh Narain Singh who is also from the BJP with JDUrsquos Devesh Chandra ThakurThe BJP which stands stripped of power in the aftermath of the seismic political events in the state is understood to have chosen former minister Samrat Chaudhary as the leader of the opposition in the Upper HouseThe party is yet to decide the same for the Assembly though names of Sinha and former Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad are doing the roundsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever