Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comfortably won the trust vote in the Bihar assembly with three RJD MLAs switching side at the last moment.
The NDA garnered a total of 130 votes in its favor, in the house where the majority figure is 122. The opposition Grand Alliance led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav walked out of the House before the voting as it was clear that the NDA had more than the required numbers.
This had become evident after a motion of no confidence against Speaker Avadh Bihari Chaudhary, who is from the RJD, was passed comfortably in the house leading to Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari, who is from the Janata Dal (united), presiding on the chair. Hazari later ordered a headcount of MLAs after having declared the trust motion as passed through voice vote.
Today’s developments, for now, have brought curtains on the political drama that the state has been witnessing for the last two weeks after Nitish Kumar had left the Grand Alliance on 28 January and joined hands with the BJP.
While it was more or less given that the NDA will win the trust vote given the number of MLAs it theoretically had, there were reports that attempts were being made to poach MLAs from both the alliances leading to speculations that CM Nitish Kumar and the NDA would fail at the last moment to prove that they had the numbers.
To stop MLAs from changing loyalties, both the alliance had secured their MLAs. While the BJP MLAs were sent to Gaya for two days, all members of the Mahagathbandhan, including the RJD and Congress, were asked to stay at Tejashwi Yadav’s residence in Patna. The JDU MLAs too were kept in different hotels of Patna.
Ultimately, it was three RJD MLAs who were poached by Nitish and BJP. These three MLAs are Prahlad Yadav, Neelam Devi and Chetan Anand. All these three are either ‘bahubali’ or come from the family of Bahubali (strong-man) and at one point of time, all these three were admonished and identified by the BJP as someone who represented whatever wrong was in Bihar politics.
Yadav is a five times MLA from Suryagarha, Lakhisarai. Chetan Anand is the son of notorious politician Anand Mohan Singh, who was serving life imprisonment for instigating the killing of Gopalganj district magistrate, G. Krishnaiah in 1994.
In April 2023, Nitish Kumar had amended jail rules for his early release. His early release is now being challenged in the Supreme court in a case that has been filed by Krishnaiah’s wife and his batchmates. Anand Mohan, till very recently was in the political crosshair of BJP politicians for his premature release from jail after he was convicted for killing the IAS officer.
It is speculated that Chetan ‘s mother, Lovely Anand has been promised a Lok Sabha ticket from BJP or JDU from Vaishali /Sheohar. Till late last night, Chetan was playing cricket with Tejashwi at his bungalow, successfully hiding the game of political deceit that he was indulging in.
The second bahubali who helped Nitish Kumar and the BJP was MLA Neelam Singh, wife of criminal politician Anant Singh. Sources are saying the deal that was offered to Neelam Singh to vote for NDA was the early release of Anant Singh from prison and a lok sabha ticket to the candidate suggested by Neelam Singh.
As soon as the proceedings of the house started, the opposition realized that it was entering the political match in which the result was already decided.
Former CM Jeetan Ram Manjhi and his four MLAs that constitute HAM, who had earlier indicated that he was not happy with being given only one ministerial position in the cabinet, arrived in the assembly accompanied by BJP MP and union minister Nityanand Rai.
After this, BJP MLA Nandkishore Yadav presented a motion of no confidence against the RJD speaker Avadh Bihari Chaudhary . The motion received support from 125 legislators, while 112 members voted against it. After his removal, Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari came on the chair following which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar presented the vote of confidence.
Before the voting commenced on Monday, the NDA had 128 MLAs- BJP 78, JDU 45, HAM 4 and one Independent, only 6 more than the magic number of 122 needed in the house of 243. On the other hand, the opposition was stacked up at 115 MLAs with RJD having 79, Congress 19 and Left 16. One MLA is of AIMIM.
