Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi gets Patna HC jolt, but BJP backs up

PATNA: Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s position appeared to weaken a day ahead of the trust vote scheduled for Friday, with the Patna High Court turning down the pleas of four “disqualified” MLAs of his camp to participate in the confidence motion besides dismissing state minister Vinay Bihari’s petition to allow the Deputy Speaker instead of the Speaker to preside over the proceedings.

The two separate rulings further complicated problems for the embattled CM, who has been expelled by JD(U) owing to his refusal to step down in favour of his predecessor Nitish Kumar.

This seemed to be the case even as BJP decided to back Manjhi with his 87 MLAs in the 233-member assembly, where Manjhi still did not seem close to the magic number of 117. The JD(U)-RJD-Congress combine, along with CPI, on the other hand, has been claiming strength of 130 MLAs.

In another significant development, the Speaker of the Assembly, Uday Narain Choudhary, recognised JD(U) as the principal opposition party in the House, replacing BJP, whose leader Nand Kishore Yadav hitherto enjoyed the status of the opposition leader.

JD(U) released an audio tape to show how RJD MP Pappu Yadav —who has been publicly rooting for Manjhi — was offering inducement to JD(U) MLA Sarafuddin to wean him away, revealing genuine scare in the JD(U) camp.