PATNA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Thursday staged protest against Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary for recognising Janata Dal (United) as the main opposition party.
The BJP MLAs staged protest outside Speaker’s office, accusing him of being biased. The protests came after the Bihar Assembly Speaker today recognised JD(U) as the main opposition party, granting status of leader of opposition to Vijay Chaudhary.
The Speaker’s move came after the JD-U had earlier demanded recognition as the main opposition party and separate sitting arrangements in the Assembly in view of the upcoming trust vote.

“Assembly Secretariat has to act according to numerical strength and since JD(U) had sought the status of main opposition, we had no reason to deny them this considering their numbers,” Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary told to  News Agency pti.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav, who was the leader of opposition in the Assembly until now, returned all the facilities granted to him.
“This is for the first time in the country that a party–JD(U)– will sit in both treasury and opposition sides,” Yadav said.Talking to news agency ANI, Yadav confirmed that the Bihar BJP MLAs have decided to vote in favor of Manjhi in the House, adding that the party central leadership has been informed about the latest development.
Opposition BJP in Bihar has hinted at voting in favour of embattled Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi during the February 20 trust vote with all its MLAs unanimously supporting such a move aimed at send “a strong reply to Nitish Kumar for humiliating a Mahadalit”.

The BJP’s unanimous view emerged during a meeting of its Legislature Party at the residence of Sushil Kumar Modi here, where all party MLAs felt that the way former chief minister Kumar has “humiliated a Mahadalit” he should be taught a lesson.
Earlier on Tuesday, the JD(U) suspended seven MLAs owing allegiance to Manjhi, ahead of the February 20 trial of strength for him on the floor of the Bihar Assembly.