Patna, March 11: Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today gave the proceedings of the Assembly a miss fearing JDU's disciplinary action after the party issued him a whip to vote in favour of the Nitish Kumar government during the trust vote.

Manjhi claimed that he skipped the inaugural day of the budget session after seeking advice from constitutional expert Subhas Kashyap on the issue. He also sent a letter to Hare Ram Mukhiya, the acting secretary of Bihar Legislative Assembly, asking how a party's whip could be mandatory on an unattached member of the Assembly.

"I had received a letter from Shravan Kumar (JDU chief whip), asking me to vote in favour of Nitish Kumar. But as I have been expelled from the party and am an unattached member of the JDU, the whip does not apply to me," Manjhi told reporters at 1 Aney Marg.

Justifying his decision of skipping the joint session of Bihar Legislative Council, Manjhi said: "I had written a letter to the acting secretary of Bihar Legislative Assembly seeking his opinion on the JDU's whip to me. He said in his reply that he could do nothing on this front and only the state party president or the chief whip could take a call on the issue. I have written a letter to the JDU chief whip as well, but he has not responded till now."

Manjhi said: "My rights were not defined. So, how could I attend the session? Even constitutional expert Subhas Kashyap said that the whip does not apply to an unattached member."

On the eve of the trust vote, the ruling JDU had issued the whip to the party legislators, including the dissident group of MLAs led by Manjhi, to vote for the Nitish government. Shravan had said that the whip was applicable to all the party legislators, including those suspended from the party or declared unattached member in the House. He had said those defying the whip would lose their membership within hours of the vote.

All loyalists of Manjhi voted in the favour of Nitish during the lobby division. Manjhi claimed that he had suggested them to attend the session so that the fight against Nitish could be carried on.

"Do not assume that I have become weak today. I only suggested the MLAs supporting me to attend the session. I did not want them to lose their membership," said Manjhi.

He also took a dig at Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary and said: "He is just following the diktat of Nitish."

Manjhi, however, appeared confused about floating his new party on April 20. "Nothing is certain now. I shall take the decision later," he said.