Patna: Vijay Chaudhary, senior JDU legislator and a close confidante of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was on unanimously elected as the Speaker of Bihar Assembly. Chaudhary's name was proposed and seconded by members of all the parties, including JDU, RJD, Congress, besides opposition BJP, Hindustani Awam Morcha and LJP.
But, three members of CPI-ML remained absent from the House during election of the Speaker of the 16th Bihar Legislative Assembly.
Later, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shrawan Kumar said that though members of CPI-ML were not present in the House during election of the Speaker, they had conveyed their verbal consent in the name of Chaudhary.
58-year-old Chaudhary is the fifth term MLA from Sarairanjan constituency in Samastipur district. He started his legislative career as Congress MLA in 1982 but later shifted to JDU and was number two minister in the previous JDU ministry of Nitish Kumar.
Election of the new Speaker was the first agenda taken by the House on Wednesday.
Protem Speaker Sadanand Singh called the name of 11 proposers and as many seconders in favour of Chaudhary and later put the proposal to voice vote which got a big yes.
Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar, former Chief Minister and HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Congress state chief and minister Ashok Choudhary, JDU leaders Shyam Rajak, Ranju Geeta and BJP's Sanjay Sarawgi were among 11 proposers to Chaudhary's candidature.
Later, the Protem Speaker asked CM Nitish Kumar and Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar to escort Chaudhary to the chair of the Speaker which they did.
Son of a freedom fighter and Congress legislator Jagdish Prasad Chaudhary, Vijay Chaudhary was born on January 8, 1957. He is an MA in History from Patna University. He was a bank probationer at Trivandrum which he left after his father's death and plunged into politics by winning the byelection from Sarairanjan in 1982 as Congress candidate.
Chaudhary served as General Secretary of state Congress and a member of AICC from 2000 to 2005. Later, due to closeness with Nitish Kumar he left Congress and joined JD(U) and was made its General Secretary and main spokesman in 2008. He also served as JD(U) state chief and later was inducted in state cabinet in 2010.
In his welcome speech, Nitish Kumar lauded the personality of the new Speaker and assured cooperation from the Treasury benches to run the House.
Kumar narrated his association with the new Speaker since early 80s. He said he came in contact with Chaudhary when he became MLA from Lok Dal for the first time in 1985.
Despite being in rival parties, Chaudhary crossed party boundary and supported opposition members "like us on issues concerning the common man." "I could never forget those days," an emotional Kumar said.
He said unanimity in his name from all parties reflected his personality.
"You have been elected from one party JDU but from today onwards you would be of every parties and conduct the business of the House impartially," Kumar said.
Speaking next, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, who is also the RJD Legislature Party leader, greeted the new Speaker and expressed the hope he would be particularly kind towards first time MLAs and youths in raising issues of public interest. He promised that his party legislators would follow the Chair in a disciplined manner.
Senior BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar highlighted the pleasant nature of the new Speaker which he and other BJP members had seen during days of NDA rule. He exuded confidence that Chaudhary would run the House as "guardian" and give equal treatment to both treasury and opposition benches.
Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh, who is senior most MLA entering the present House from Kahalgaon for 9th term, highlighted good qualities of Chaudhary and reminded him of the balance hanging above seat of the Speaker which denoted justice.
Former Chief Minister and HAM leader Jitan Ram Manjhi greeted the new Speaker.
He, however, used the opportunity to apparently take a dig at the previous Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary who, he alleged, "acted against members like me who rebelled against Nitish Kumar giving the laid down rules a go bye".
"You might have to take some hard decision impartially which I hope you are competent to do," Manjhi said and reminded him of the punchline of great story writer Prem Chand that a person sitting on the seat of justice is neither a friend of anybody nor an enemy.
Legislature party leader of LJP Raju Tiwari and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) leader Lallan Paswan also greeted the new Speaker.
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