Patna: Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary on Wednesday defended turning down the Opposition's demand for a headcount in the passing of the appropriation bill for 2018-19 on Tuesday, at which RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad had alleged "murder of democracy".
If the money bill had failed to pass, the NDA government would have fallen.
"I have always tried to run the House in accordance with the rules. The chair is restricted by the rules. I will remain impartial," Chaudhary said on Wednesday as RJD MLA Lalit Yadav raised the matter when the Assembly started the day's proceedings.
Lalit said that his party had high respect for the chair, "but the manner in which you did not allow the headcount after ringing the bell and having doors of the Assembly closed has left doubts".
Even as the Speaker was justifying his action, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said after the voice vote and passing of the bill the Opposition should have demanded a headcount. "But not a single RJD MLA stood up that time to demand a headcount," the minister declared.
RJD MLAs challenged the minister's version of the events, and the Speaker offered to go through the video footage.
There are still sharp differences over what would have happened had their been a headcount.
"We were in larger numbers and the government would have fallen," Lalit claimed.
The ruling parties disagreed.
"As chief whip of the NDA I keep a watch on the number of MLAs inside the Assembly and the lobby," remarked parliamentary affairs minister Shravan Kumar. "We had adequate numbers and even if the headcount was done we would have won it comfortably."
He stressed that the ruling coalition had at least 15 more MLAs than the Opposition in the House.
There was confusion on Tuesday during the voting. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi was not in the House after the doors of the assembly had been closed. Nor had education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma managed to get in. The bell of the assembly rang for more than three minutes, claimed RJD MLAs
"Perhaps the government may have managed to win. The Speaker appeared confused about the number of MLAs present in the House. But once he ordered the closure of the doors he should have held a headcount," asserted an RJD MLA, stressing that the impartiality of the Speaker will now be suspect.
RJD MLA Bhai Birendra told the Speaker sarcastically: "I requested you to throw out outsiders from the House - CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil KumarModi (both are members of the Legislative Council and not the Assembly). But you did not listen to my advice and the two did not allow the vote to take place."
