After almost 15 days of high-voltage political drama in Bihar on February 12, Monday, it reached its climax with the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government securing the trust vote with 129 votes (78 BJP + 44 JDU + 4 HAM + 3 RJD) in favor, whereas 0 votes were polled against the trust vote because all 112 MLAs of Mahagathbandhan (RJD, INC, CPI (ML), CPI (M), and CPI) walked out of the house.
The Bihar legislative assembly consists of 243 members, and 122 seats are required to prove the majority. At present, RJD is the largest party with 78 MLAs, followed by the BJP with 78 MLAs, JD (U) with 45 MLAs, and Congress with 19 MLAs. With 129 votes, the NDA has comfortably proved the majority in the house and passed the trust vote. During the floor test, three Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs, namely Prahlad Yadav Neelam Devi and Chetan Anand, switched over to the government side.
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High-voltage drama in Bihar before the floor test
Just before the floor test, a no-confidence motion was brought against the speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and RJD leader Avadh Bihari Choudhary, which was passed with 125 votes in favor and 112 in opposition. As a result, Choudhary had to step down from the speaker’s post. The deputy speaker, Maheshwar Hazari of Janta Dal (United), conducted the trust vote motion. Before the floor test, both camps were optimistic about their victory. The kind of statements made by party leaders from both camps have made the entire political drama more interesting.
Though both sides were confident and were also worried about the horse-trading of their MLAs, the speculation of missing MLAs from both sides has given way to such rumors. So, to prevent any mishaps, parties decided to save their MLAs. Congress flew its MLAs to Hyderabad, while RJD MLAs were called on to stay in Tejaswi Yadav’s house, BJP MLAs were held at a hotel in Patna, and JDU MLA Nitish Kumar also stayed in a hotel in Patna. From the political drama of Bihar, we can see how the political parties are worried about the coaching of their MLAs, and this also shows the increasing trend of resort politics in India.
Reactions from Nitish and Tejaswi
Speaking in the Bihar assembly before the floor test, RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejaswi Yadav took a jibe at Nitish Kumar and spoke, ‘I feel bad for JDU MLAs because Nitish Kumar does all these flip-flops and they have to face the criticism of the public and have to answer when they go on the ground. He also criticises Nitish Kumar’s statement of ‘Udhar Man Nahi lag Raha tha’ after breaking the alliance with Mahagathbandhan and replies that ‘ham log naachne gane Ke Liye Thodi Hai jo Aapka Man, Laga Rahe, we were there to support you’, he added.
Whereas, Nitish Kumar, while speaking in the assembly, said, ‘I left the Mahagathbandhan because things were not going the way we had thought’, ‘I had been working to form the alternative alliance, but things also didn’t work out, and, in the end, with consultation from all my MLA’s and party leaders, I took this decision’, he added. Nitish Kumar also accused the RJD of taking credit for his work and reminded the house of Jungle Raj of 15 years of RJD rule before 2005.
Conclusion
There is a famous saying that ‘politics is unpredictable. This especially suits Bihar because of the kind of politics that happens in Bihar. Though this political drama reached its end, many experts still believe that ‘picture Abhi Baki Hai’. It was interesting to note the speech of Tejaswi Yadav during the floor test because he was not so fierce against Nitish Kumar and was speaking very cautiously, but it signs that Tejaswi is still hopeful for Nitish’s return to Mahagathbandhan; nobody knows.
But it is true that Tejaswi is playing his cards very mindfully and is focused on the assembly election, which is going to happen next year. How the politics of Bihar will play out in the next year will be interesting to watch out for. Are we going to see another U-turn in Bihar, not from Nitish necessarily, but from any other former chief minister of Bihar?
