NEW DELHI: Tensions erupted in the Bihar assembly on Thursday when an opposition MLA threatened to sit in the seat assigned to the chief minister, which led to a strong response from the speaker.
This incident forced speaker Nand Kishor Yadav to summon the marshals and issue a warning to the RJD legislator about potential eviction, before adjourning the session until 2pm.
The altercation began after the question hour, once chief minister Nitish Kumar had left the House.
RJD’s senior leader Alok Mehta stood up to raise a concern about rebel MLAs from his party occupying seats on the ruling side.
“There should be proper seating arrangements. If people take their seats as they wish, it will lead to chaos,” Mehta said, while other opposition MLAs from the RJD, Congress, and three Left parties shouted and rushed toward the well of the House.
The speaker, caught off guard by the uproar, informed the opposition members that nothing they said would be recorded unless they returned to their seats.
The situation became more tense when Bhai Virendra, the MLA from Maner, stood in front of the CM’s seat as if he intended to sit there.
“Don’t do this. It would lead to serious consequences,” the speaker warned, as he called in the marshals. However, he chose to adjourn the House rather than evict the MLA.
After the incident, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav spoke with the speaker privately and later told the media, “Our issue is with the speaker’s failure to address our petition to disqualify the MLAs who defected earlier this year.”
This referred to the at least seven MLAs—five from RJD and two from Congress—who had switched allegiance to the NDA during the budget session.
Yadav criticised the seating of the defected MLAs on the ruling side as “arbitrary (ektarfa)” and claimed that the speaker had assured them the issue would soon be addressed.
When asked by reporters, Bhai Virendra clarified, “I only wanted to make a point. My intention was to send a warning, not to sit there. The Speaker should either disqualify the rebels or ask them to sit on the other side.”