Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha resigns ahead of trust vote, says anguished over no-confidence motion against him

BJP leader and Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha resigned from his post following a no-confidence motion moved against him by the ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’. The resignation came just ahead of the floor test scheduled in the Bihar Assembly where the Nitish Kumar-led government will have to prove its majority.

Announcing his resignation in the Assembly, Sinha delivered an emotional speech expressing anguish over the no-confidence motion moved against him.

“The Chair is ‘Panch Parmeshwar’. What message do you want to give by casting suspicions on the Chair? People will make a decision,” Sinha said.

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Also Read: Bihar Floor Test Live Updates: Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha resigns, Nitish Kumar’s trust vote likely to be taken up at 2 PM

Meanwhile, deputy speaker of the Bihar assembly Maheshwar Hazari is all set to preside over the trust vote when the Bihar assembly proceedings resume till 2 pm. Speaker Sinha had adjourned the House till 2 PM after announcing his resignation.

“The proceedings of the House have been adjourned till 2 pm. According to the rules, after the resignation of the Speaker, all the work of the Assembly will be handled by the Deputy Speaker,” Hazari said.

Earlier, Sinha had said that he wanted to “resign on his own” after the sudden change in the Bihar government, but decided otherwise after he learnt that a no-confidence motion was moved against him.

“It had become incumbent upon me to respond to the motion. Some of the members moving the motion alleged that I had been undemocratic and dictatorial. This I cannot accept,” Sinha said.

On August 10, 55 MLAs of the newly-formed Grand Alliance had moved the motion against Sinha, wanting to have him removed before the floor test. Sinha had said on August 23 that he will not quit, as the no-confidence resolution against him was based on false charges and brought without taking care of “legislative rules”, PTI reported.

Also Read: Bihar political crisis: Nitish Kumar takes oath as CM of Bihar for record 8th time, Tejashwi Yadav returns as Deputy CM

JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar had severed ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance on August 9. He took oath as the CM of Bihar again for the eighth time with support from the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Grand Alliance of seven parties on 10 August, and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav was sworn-in as the deputy CM.

The government had submitted a letter of support of 164 MLAs in the 243-seat Assembly to the governor. The alliance needs the support of 121 MLAs to prove its majority.