BJP targets Bihar Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary, says he's acting like JD(U) leader

NEW DELHI: On the eve of the crucial trust vote in Bihar Assembly, BJP today trained its gun on Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary accusing him of "acting like a JD(U) leader against all rules and norms" and said the Nitish Kumar-led party was "crossing all limits to grab power".

"The Speaker's office has been turned into a JD(U) office and the Speaker is acting like a JD(U) leader against all rules and norms. The Speaker is acting on a partisan manner by granting JD(U) the status of leader of opposition even when its government is in power... We oppose this act of his," BJP Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

He said the JD(U) has been given the opposition party status although BJP has not given any letter of support to the Jitan Ram Manjhi government.

His comments came after the Bihar Assembly Speaker granted the status of principal opposition party to JD(U) in place of BJP and gave JD(U)'s Vijay Chaudhary the status of leader of Opposition in place of BJP's Nand Kishore Yadav.

BJP maintained that the crisis in Bihar was an "internal matter of JD(U)" and said it will decide later whether to support chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi or not in tomorrow's trust vote.

He said the Speaker has given JD(U) the status of both opposition and the ruling party and "it looks that Nitish Kumar is headed to sit in opposition from now on".

The BJP leader said, "It is an internal conflict of JD(U). It would be wrong to say Janata Dal (United) as it stands as a divided house today."

Hussain said JD(U) today stood exposed for its politics of coming to power and for humiliating a Mahadalit leader whom it had earlier made the chief minister.

"BJP has always stood by the oppressed. Whatever is happening in Bihar and the way a Mahadalit is being humiliated, it is not acceptable to BJP. Manjhi's humiliation is not right," he said.