Bihar speaker recognises JD-U as opposition party

Bihar Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary Thursday notified JD-U leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary as the leader of opposition in the assembly, replacing BJP's Nand Kishore Yadav.

The speaker accepted former chief minister Nitish Kumar's demand of giving the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) the status of the main opposition party.

The BJP legislators Thursday created a ruckus and protested in the Bihar assembly complex against the decision to appoint the JD-U leader as the leader of opposition.

"We will not sit silently...giving the status of the opposition party to JD-U is not correct. We will protest against this move," Yadav told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to formally announce Thursday whether it will support Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in the trust vote Friday. A meeting of BJP MLAs was held at senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi's residence here.

Manjhi needs 117 votes to remain the chief minister.