Nitish Kumar wins confidence vote in Bihar Assembly; BJP walks out

140 members of Bihar Assembly voted in favour of the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. (Source: Indian Express archive)

Backed by the Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Communist Party of India and one Independent MLA, the Nitish Kumar government on Wednesday comfortably won the confidence vote in Bihar Assembly amid walk out by the opposition BJP.

Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary announced in the Assembly that while a total of 140 members voted in favour of the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, there was no vote against it. The confidence vote was first approved by voice vote and then on insistence of the government, division was taken up.

Except for former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, 109 JD(U) MLAs, 24 MLAs from RJD, 5 from Congress, one of CPI and an Independent MLA voted in favour of the government. All rebel JD(U) MLAs except for Manjhi fell in line to avoid being disqualified by violating whip and voted for the Nitish Kumar ministry.

Bhartiya Janata Party, which has 87 members, walked out of the House beforehand and did not take part either in voice vote or division.

The Bihar Assembly, which has an effective strength of 233 has 10 vacancies at present. All rebel JD(U) MLAs except for Manjhi fell in line to avoid being disqualified by violating whip and voted for the Nitish Kumar ministry. Manjhi skipped the House after raising a question on how whip is applicable on an unattached member. Last month, despite support from the BJP, Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned as the chief minister just before the trust vote in Bihar Assembly.

Source:: Indian Express