Patna, Feb. 21: The Legislative Assembly Speaker today cited the Constitution and House rules to justify his decisions during the political storm of the past fortnight.

Several of Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary's decisions had fuelled controversy with the outgoing and belligerent chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Even the BJP, which was willing to back Manjhi in the floor test that never took place on Friday, accused him of being partisan.

Speaking on theAssembly premises this morning, the Speaker said: "The allegations levelled against me and my office (secretariat) are baseless and far from the facts... All my decisions were correct and taken in accordance with rules and procedures of the Bihar Assembly and the Constitution... There were proper seating arrangements for the chief minister, ministers and the Leader of the Opposition."

Manjhi and the BJP claimed Chaudhary had not allotted seats for the chief minister, the ministers and Leader of Opposition (Nand Kishore Yadav). Sushil Kumar Modi raised the issue, too, accusing Chaudhary's office of working like an extension of the JDU's.

But Chaudhary said: "The chief minister's chair is permanently earmarked in the House. There was no change in the sitting arrangement of Nand Kishore who sat in his designated seat for Leader of Opposition. Manjhi's ministers had their places too."

Another of the Speaker's decisions that came under flak from the Manjhi camp and the BJP in the past fortnight was recognising Nitish Kumar and Vijay Chaudhary as JDU legislature party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, respectively.

Chaudhary said: "The JDU state president had written to me when Manjhi was elected the new leader and I recognised him. Now, again the party president wrote to me informing that Nitish was chosen as the new leader and Manjhi had been suspended (from the party's membership)."

Next, he countered Manjhi's claim he would received the support of 140 MLAs had there been secret voting. Chaudhary said: "Article 208 of the Constitution gives power to all the Assemblies to make their own rules and Bihar Assembly has its separate set. Rule 56 of the House clearly states how voting would be conducted in the House. It does not talk about provisions of 'secret voting'. Only voice vote or division is allowed.

"I am fortunate and take pride in Manjhi's assertion that he resigned because of me. At least people will not have to bear a chief minister who says hands will be chopped off," Chaudhary added, referring to Manjhi's allegation that he resigned because of the Speaker's decisions.

He also said: "If the chief minister is saying if he had not resigned, there would have been ruckus in the House...you (people) can easily imagine what kind of administration he was running."