Bihar floor test soon, JD(U)-BJP confident of victory

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) boss Nitish Kumar, who jumped ship to the BJP last month, is set to take a floor test Monday to prove the alliance National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) majority.

The (NDA) has a total strength of 128 MLAs in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly. The majority mark is 122.

The previous government or Mahagathbandhan of the JD(U), RJD, Congress and Left parties fell because of Kumar’s latest volte face. He was sworn in as the CM of the new coalition for a record ninth time on 28 January.

Since Assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary belongs to the RJD, the House will first take up the no-confidence motion against him, state parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary had said Sunday.

“As required under the rules, 38 MLAs will rise in their seats to endorse the motion after which the Speaker will have to make way for his deputy who will conduct the proceedings until a new Speaker is elected,” he added.

Notably, Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari belongs to the JD(U).

Kumar, who returned to the BJP-led NDA in January – a coalition he has quit twice in a decade – said last week that his latest realignment was going to be “permanent” and would last “forever”.

The JD(U) president was in the capital last week to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda, among others.

“I have come back to the alliance where I belong, and from which I had been away for a while. Now I am going to be here forever. Our ties will be permanent,” said Nitish, whose switch has come as a blow to the Opposition bloc INDIA, which he helped form.

After quitting INDIA, Kumar had said nothing was right in the grouping and that he had tried to make it work, but couldn’t.

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