Bihar floor test: Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan to face trust vote today

 The newly formed Nitish Kumar government will face a trust vote on the floor of the Bihar Assembly house on August 24. After Kumar walked out of the NDA alliance in the state, he joined hands with Congress, RJD and other parties to form the new government.

The newly formed Nitish Kumar government will face a trust vote on the floor of the Bihar Assembly house on August 24. Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar after leaving the state's NDA alliance. Later, on August 10, his party JD(U) joined hands with the Congress and the RJD and Kumar was sworn in as the state's chief minister for the eighth time, with Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD serving as his deputy. In his first cabinet meeting on August 11, Kumar agreed to call a special Assembly session for the purpose of moving a resolution of confidence to demonstrate the Grand Alliance's majority on the house floor on August 24.

Understand number game

As many as seven parties are supporting the Bihar ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government. JD(U) with 45 MLAs, RJD with 79 MLAs, Congress with 19 MLAs, CPI-ML with 12 MLAs, Jiten Ram Majhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) with 4 MLAs, and 2 each from CPI and CPM are the parties that support the ruling coalition. Sumit Kumar Singh, a state minister and independent lawmaker, has also lent his support to the governing "Grand Alliance."

The majority or "magic number" in the 243-member Bihar Vidhan Sabha is 122. The ruling alliance, which counts 163 MLAs and includes the single-largest party RJD, is expected to easily pass the floor test. The BJP, on the other hand, just has 77 MLAs.

No-confidence motion against Speaker

A Speaker often conducts the floor test. But things might become complicated because the state government has moved a no-confidence resolution against the current Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha but has refused to step down. While the Nitish-led Grand Alliance wants the Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari to preside over the floor test, it is unclear if the no-confidence vote against the Speaker or the motion of confidence in the government to demonstrate its majority would be discussed first. When a motion of no confidence has already been made against the Speaker, he or she is not permitted to lead the house. The Speaker can, however, demand that the confidence vote come up first.