BJP questions Speaker's act in split

The BJP today questioned the role of Bihar Assembly Speaker in recognising the 13 RJD MLAs as a separate group and hit at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for hatching "conspiracy" for survival of his minority government.
"Role of Speaker is not impartial in the case of division in RJD," senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement here.
Attacking Kumar, the senior BJP leader said his "conspiracy" to save his minority government through "horse trading" has been exposed.
"This drama of horse trading has tarnished image of Bihar," he said.
Sushil Modi said without conducting personal interview with the 13 MLAs whose names figured in the list or verifying their signature, Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary recognised them as a separate group.

"They should have formed two third majority of the party as per anti-defection law. This two third majority can not be in installment...There has been no such tradition in the country," the BJP leader said.

He said "if Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wanted to include them in his party he should have asked them to resign first from Assembly as well party".
Sushil Modi gave example of Gujarat where two Congress MLAs joined BJP after quitting Assembly as well party membership.
Earlier, also five Congress MLAs had joined BJP in similar fashion, he said adding "this is morality of the parliamentary democracy."

He said Kumar has been feeling "demoralised" politically after separation with BJP and indulging in "unethical" practises to add numbers to his government.