Speaker calls meeting for arrangements during trust vote

PATNA: Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary today called a meeting of leaders of all political parties on Monday to discuss arrangements for the February-20 confidence vote.

"A meeting of leaders of all political parties will be held at 3 PM on February 16," Chaudhary told PTI.

He said a separate letter would be sent to Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to participate in the meeting.

The meeting will discuss arrangements in the House for February 20 when trust vote will be conducted immediately after address of Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to the joint sitting of both the Houses, he said.

Asked if JD(U) has requested to allow them to sit in the opposition gallery during confidence vote and recognise its leader Vijay Chaudhary as Leader of Opposition in place of BJP, he said "this will also come for discussion during the meeting."

Meanwhile, an Independent MLA Pawan Jaiswal, who is siding with Manjhi, has given a notice for no confidence motion against the Speaker for "gravitating" towards the Nitish Kumar group.

The Speaker said a notice had been received against him and suitable action would be taken.

According to rules of the House, no confidence motion against the Speaker is admitted only if 38 members would approve the proposal. After admission of the motion, voting on it is to be conducted after 14 days of the admission. This makes it clear that the Speaker will preside over the House during the trust vote.