Jiten Ram Manjhi asked to seek confidence vote on basis of precedents: Governor

PATNA: Bihar Governor K N Tripathi today said only after studying past precedents, constitutional provisions and Supreme Court rulings that he directed Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to seek confidence vote on February 20 after his inaugural address to the state legislature.

"Immediately after the address, when the Legislative Assembly sits for the day, the first item should be Manjhi introducing a proposal to seek confidence vote in his government," a Raj Bhavan secretariat release said.

"If needed or if the the House demands in accordance with rules, a discussion would be held on the proposal of confidence vote," it said.

"After discussion, the Speaker of Legislative Assembly will decide either to go for lobby division or secret ballot. If secret ballot is held counting of votes would be done in the presence of members and Governor will be immediately informed about the result," it said.

The release said quoting the Governor that the decision had been reached after "intensively" studying past predecents, constitutional provisions and the Supreme Court orders in the S R Bommai and Jagdambika Pal cases.

The Governor said it became clear to him after hearing a delegation led by Sharad Yadav, meeting Manjhi and Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary that rival political groups of Nitish Kumar and the Chief Minister were claiming majority support in their favour.

Moreover as per Article 176 of the Constitution, the Governor has to address a joint session of two Houses of Legislature on the opening day of the session in the start of a new year.

"This is a consitutional requirement," it said, adding the first meeting of the Legislature has been called on February 20 in the current year 2015.

The state cabinet in its meeting on January 20, 2015 decided to convene Budget Session of both Houses of Bihar Legislature on February 20. No subsequent Cabinet meeting suggested change in the date.

"Hence, altering the date of the start of the session is not right," the release said.

Nitish Kumar has alleged that giving more time for confidence vote meant promoting "horse trading".