Shortly before Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his new ally - Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal - were to face a floor test, speaker and Bharatiya Janata Party leader VK Sinha, who had been served a no-confidence motion, resigned from his position. Sinha called the motion against him 'unclear' and claimed 'eight of nine letters were not as per rule' but stood down anyway. "The Chair is 'panch parmeshwar'. What message do you want to give by casting suspicions on the Chair? People will make a decision..." Sinha said as he quit.
"The notice received in the assembly secretariat seems to have ignored rules, provisions and parliamentary decorum. Being in the chair, it is my natural responsibility to reject such a notice," he had said.
Sinha had said that he wanted to “resign on his own” after the sudden change in the Bihar government, but decided otherwise after he learnt that a no-confidence motion was moved against him.
This morning, though, he told the Assembly, "It had become incumbent upon me to respond to the motion. Some of the members moving the motion alleged that I had been undemocratic and dictatorial. This I cannot accept."
In view of the resignation, Deputy speaker of the Bihar assembly Maheshwar Hazari presided over the trust vote when the Bihar assembly proceedings resume till 2 pm. Speaker Sinha had adjourned the House till 2 PM after announcing his resignation.
“The proceedings of the House have been adjourned till 2 pm. According to the rules, after the resignation of the Speaker, all the work of the Assembly will be handled by the Deputy Speaker,” Hazari said.
On August 10, 55 MLAs of the newly-formed Grand Alliance had moved the motion against Sinha, wanting to have him removed before the floor test. Sinha had said on August 23 that he will not quit, as the no-confidence resolution against him was based on false charges and brought without taking care of “legislative rules”, PTI reported..