Bihar: NDA, grand alliance set to fight for Speaker’s post

PATNA: It will be for the third time in the history of Bihar legislative assembly if the Speaker is elected through contest, as seems imminent on Wednesday. The grand alliance on Tuesday fielded six-time RJD MLA Awadh Bihari Choudhary against the ruling NDA’s Vijay Kumar Sinha, a three-time MLA of BJP, for the Speaker’s post.
If Choudhary does not withdraw his candidature before the start of the election process on Wednesday morning in the House, the state assembly will have its Speaker through election for the third time, in contravention of the convention of having a unanimous choice for the post.
The first time such a situation had arisen was in 1967 when Congress, even though it was the biggest party in the House with 131 members, could not form government and yielded place to the Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD), which formed the government led by Mahamaya Prasad Sinha.
The then deputy leader of the SVD government, Karpoori Thakur, tried to persuade the Congress heavyweight and the then Speaker, Lakshmi Narayan Singh Sudhanshu, to agree for his re-election as Speaker by consensus. However, Sudhanshu politely declined the offer made by Thakur. Accordingly, Dhanik Lal Mandal from the Samyukt Socialist Party (SSP) that Thakur led was elected the Speaker through contest. Again, in 1969, Mandal became the Speaker through contest.
However, as to the newly constituted present House, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, when asked by the mediapersons on the assembly premises, said: “There will be election (for the post of the Speaker).”
Given the NDA strength in the assembly, Sinha’s victory is seemingly certain, but Tejashwi, backed by other grand alliance partners, has given a call for the “conscience vote”.