Nitish Kumar to face floor test on February 12
The Hindu
The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar faces a floor test to prove its majority in the Assembly.
The Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance government is all set to face a floor test on Monday to prove its majority in the Bihar Assembly.
On the eve of the crucial floor test, political parties in the State remained busy on Sunday trying to keep their flock together.
All 79 MLAs of the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have been camping at the residence of former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav since Saturday night. On Sunday evening, 16 of the 19 MLAs of the Congress returned from Hyderabad and went directly to Mr. Yadav’s residence.
Similarly, the 16 MLAs of the Left parties also reached there. All 114 MLAs will stay overnight at Mr. Yadav’s residence and leave for the Assembly on Monday morning. Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh was also present there. Later in the evening, a large number of police personnel were deployed outside Mr. Yadav’s residence.
The BJP MLAs, who were camping at a resort in Bodh Gaya, also returned to Patna. They were taken to the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha.
Late in the evening, the 45 MLAs of the Janata Dal(United) were asked to gather at the official residence of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Choudhary for a Legislature Party meeting led by Mr. Kumar. However, four MLAs gave it a miss. They had also skipped the lunch organised by Cabinet Minister Shravan Kumar on Saturday.
They are Barbigha MLA Sudarshan Kumar, Sursand MLA Dilip Ray, Rupauli MLA Beema Bharti and Parbatta MLA Sanjeev Kumar. The Hindu tried to contact them, but their mobile phones were either switched off or not reachable. The JD(U) also issued a whip to its legislators to vote in support of the motion.