The NDA government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday won the Bihar floor test after it secured the support of 129 MLAs who voted in favour of the NDA alliance.
As three MLAs from the Rashtriya Janata Dal also voted in favour of Nitish Kumar, there was a walkout by the opposition during the vote of confidence.
There was a 129 majority for the coalition government in the floor test.
Speaker Maheshwar Hazari, the deputy speaker of the Bihar legislative assembly, asked the members of the house who supported the motion to take their seats.
“(A total of) 129 votes have been received in favour of the motion. There were zero votes against the motion. Thus, this House passes the trust vote,” the Speaker said on Monday.
Three Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs -Chetan Anand, Neelam Devi, and Prahlad Yadav went and joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the State Assembly.
On three RJD MLAs moving to the NDA side, RJD leader Bhai Virendra said that the public will not make them MLAs again.
While addressing the Assembly, Nitish Kumar took a swipe at his former Mahagathbandhan ally Rashtriya Janata Dal and said that the latter indulged in “corrupt practices” during its rule in the eastern state.
He added that an investigation into these activities would be launched by the present NDA government.
Prior to the Nitish Kumar government’s floor test to demonstrate its majority, the Bihar assembly had earlier passed a resolution of no confidence against Speaker of the Bihar Assembly and leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Awadh Bihari Choudhary.
125 members supported the ruling alliance’s resolution during the no-confidence motion, while 112 voted against it.
The opposition was taken aback when RJD MLAs Chetan Anand, Neelam Devi, and Prahlad Yadav were spotted occupying the treasury seats in the Bihar Assembly.
Reacting to this, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said “MLAs should sit on their respective seats till the end of voting, otherwise voting will be considered invalid.”
Nitish Kumar had reportedly gone into a sulk after not being named the convenor of INDIA, the Opposition bloc that took shape through his efforts. He resigned as chief minister on January 28, his second volte face in less than 18 months.
