With only two days left for the embattled but defiant Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to undergo the crucial floor test as numbers are seemingly not favouring him, Manjhi did not get any positive assurance from the BJP top brass in Delhi. He reportedly contacted some senior BJP leaders on Wednesday here.
Wednesday was a day full of meetings by the rival camps while the Patna High Court gave a bit of relief as well as jolt to Manjhi. The Bench made some amendments to its order which was given on Monday that restrained the CM from taking policy decisions with financial implications. The division Bench headed by Chief Justice l Narsimha Reddy ordered that the CM can take decisions but cannot implement them before proving his majority in the Assembly.
In a different order by the same Bench, the court directed to restore the security cover to all the former Ministers and legislators. Their security had been withdrawn by the CM recently after 20 Ministers resigned and majority of the MlAs supporting Nitish Kumar. The court ordered that the Government should restore their security within 24 hours.
The all party meeting convened by the Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Chaudhary once again could not materialise as the BJP boycotted it. The meeting was scheduled to discuss the claim by newly elected JD(U) legislature Party leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary for his recognition as the leader of Opposition and JD(U) as main Opposition party. Incumbent leader of Opposition Nandkishore Yadav objected that the CM and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs had not been invited to the meeting.
The meeting of the BJP legislature party, to discuss party’s stand during the floor test on February 20, remained inconclusive on Wednesday. The party is still insisting that the stand of the BJP would be revealed only during the floor test.
After Nitish’s apprehension of disruption in the Assembly during the vote of confidence, former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi alleged that the Nitish group might create chaos in the Assembly in a bid to get a favourable decision by the Speaker.
“The Speaker is doing unconstitutional decisions under the pressure of Nitish and lalu Prasad. He is threatening to terminate the membership of MlAs supporting Manjhi and all attempts are being made to install Nitish as CM by luring the MlAs with offer of Rs 2 crore and ministerial berths,” Modi alleged and added that ‘offer, pressure and dinner’ politics would not work.
CM Manjhi who has been expelled from the JD(U) refused to recognise Sharad Yadav as the party president. In a TV interview he said, “Under the JD(U) constitution one person cannot be president for more than two terms.” Spewing venom on Nitish, the man who made him CM, he said “Nitish has betrayed the poor, Mahadalits and minorities by humiliating me and they will never forgive him. It would be a ‘agni parisksha’ for me. I will fight till last for the rights of poor. I will oppose Nitish tooth and nail. I treated him as my icon but ready to fight against him.”