Bihar Floor Test Date, Time, Procedure, Seat Tally: The newly formed Nitish Kumar government will face a trust vote on the floor of the Bihar Assembly house on August 24. After Kumar walked out of the NDA alliance in the state, he stepped down as Bihar’s Chief Minister. On August 10, his party JD(U) joined hands with the Congress and the RJD and Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the eight time, while RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav took oath as his deputy. On August 11, Kumar, in his first cabinet meeting, decided to convene a special Assembly session on August 24 to move a confidence motion in order to prove the Grand Alliance’s majority on the floor of the house.
How do the numbers stack up?
As many as seven parties are supporting the Bihar ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government. The parties that are supporting the ruling alliance are JD(U) with 45 MLAs, RJD with 79 MLAs, Congress with 19 MLAs, CPI-ML with 12 MLAs, former Bihar Chief Minister Jiten Ram Majhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) with 4 MLAs and 2 each from CPI and CPM. Independent legislator and state minister Sumit Kumar Singh has also extended his support to the ruling ‘Grand Alliance.’
In the 243-member Bihar Vidhan Sabha, the majority or the magic number is 122. The ruling alliance, including the single-largest party RJD, boasts of 164 MLAs and is slated to sail through the floor test tomorrow. On the other hand, the BJP has only 77 MLAs.
Also read| Bihar political crisis: Nitish Kumar takes oath as CM of Bihar for record 8th time, Tejashwi Yadav returns as Deputy CM
Who will conduct the floor test?
The floor test is generally conducted by a Speaker. However, with the government moving a no-confidence motion against incumbent Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha following his refusal to resign, the matter could get tricky. While the Nitish-led Grand Alliance wants the Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari to preside over the floor test, there is no clarity on which motion will be taken up first – the confidence motion of the government to prove its majority, or the no-confidence motion against the Speaker. The Speaker cannot preside over the house when a no-confidence motion has already been moved against him. However, the Speaker can insist that the confidence vote be taken up first.
The Speaker could, for instance, take up a report of the Ethics Committee of the Bihar Assembly about a March 2021 incident when RJD MLAs had allegedly held the Speaker “hostage” and police had to be called to the Assembly. The report indicts about 18 MLAs of the RJD, who will receive a notice as per the laid down procedure. The Speaker, as per the rules, has the powers to decide the further course of action against them, and even order their disqualification.