Manjhi's countdown for trust begins

Ahead of the crucial trust vote in Bihar Assembly on Friday, the Patna High Court gave a major blow to the Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. It disallowed four dissident JD (U) MLAs from casting their ballot during the confidence motion.

The decision would have a huge impact on Manjhi's support as it would discourage many legislators from supporting the embattled Chief Minister. However, Manjhi's camp has maintained that they have the numbers and would sail through the vote with support from the BJP, which have shown interest in supporting the rebel JD-U leader.

The four MLAs had asked the court to grant them permission for voting tomorrow but a division bench of justices Iqbal Ahmad Ansari and Chakradhari Sharan Singh did not allow them. The division bench stayed the earlier order of High Court's single bench, which had on January 16 set aside the order of Assembly Speaker to terminate membership of the four MLAs.

The MLAs - Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo, Ravindra Rai, Rahul Sharma and Neeraj Singh Babloo - approached the court on the basis of the earlier order. The order was challenged before the division bench by former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shrawan Kumar.

The dissident legislators have been working overtime in favour of Manjhi. The court also dismissed a PIL filed by Minister Vinay Bihari seeking to keep Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary away from the trust vote. The court said that it is the prerogative of the Speaker on how to conduct the business of the House.

Bihari, who is a minister in the Manjhi Cabinet, had alleged that the Speaker was 'partisan' and pleaded to keep him away from the trust vote.

Meanwhile, the speaker had also recognised the JD-U as main opposition party, presenting a unique situation where both treasury and opposition benches would be occupied by the same party legislators.

JD (U)'s leader Vijay Chaudhary has been chosen as the leader of the opposition in state assembly, just a day ahead of the crucial floor test by Jitan Ram Manjhi. Soon after the appointment, BJP's MLA protested outside speaker's chamber.

Soon the Bihar Legislative Council also followed the path and gave Nitish Kumar the status of the leader of opposition.

Legislative council chairperson Awdesh Narayan Singh accepted plea of JD (U) that it be given status of opposition in the house.

Nitish Kumar has been recognised as Leader of Opposition accordingly. The decision, chairman said, has been taken in accordance with the laid down rules. Nitish Kumar has replaced BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi, who would now be leader of BJP-Legislative Party in the Council, Singh said.