Ranchi, June 1: Governor Ved Prakash Marwah today notified senior CPI leader Bisheshwar Khan’s appointment as protem Assembly speaker after Bagun Sumbrui tendered his resignation as the House’s deputy Speaker.
Khan will be administered oath of office tomorrow.
Bagun Sumbrui quit the deputy Speaker’s chair and flew to Delhi to take oath as the Lok Sabha member. Before leaving, he also met chief minister Arjun Munda but what transpired during their meeting is not known.
A two-day special session of the state Assembly will begin on June 3, where the BJP-led government will field Inder Singh Namdhari for his re-election as Speaker.
The Opposition parties are yet to decide whether they will field a candidate for the post.
Protem speaker Khan is the senior-most member of the House. He has been been representing Nala constituency in the state Assembly since 1962 as a CPI member. He lost the seat only once in 1990.
Refusing to comment on the high voltage drama staged by Sumbrui during the last few days, Khan told The Telegraph that Sumbrui was a simple-hearted man and fell into a trap laid by a section of cunning officials. Former Congress Legislature Party leader and Lok Sabha member from Godda Furqan Ansari said, “Sumbrui might have got carried away by wrong suggestions.”
However, Sumbrui again admitted that he ceased to be the deputy Assembly Speaker the moment he quit his House membership. He added that the official work discharged by him yesterday was not unjustified. “I am not a legal expert. But, I have already consulted a Lok Sabha secretary general and advocate general. The law is confusing. You are free to do anything,” he said.
Though the Opposition parties are yet to decide on fielding a candidate for the Speaker’s post, the grapevine has it that the Opposition may not field a candidate. State Congress president Thomas Hansda said he will soon talk to party president Sonia Gandhi on the issue. If he fails to secure an appointment immediately, senior-most party MLA Rajendra Singh or Manoj Yadav will be asked to lead the party in the House during the two-day session.
“We are no longer interested in fighting for the Assembly Speaker or deputy Speaker’s chair. Our main aim is to pull down the Arjun Munda government at the earliest. This government will fall soon. Why should we run after small things?” Ansari said. Opposition leader Stephen Marandi said since Namdhari had been the Assembly Speaker in the past, the MLAs were not curios about his style of functioning.
He admitted that it was now more difficult for the Opposition parties to topple the government in the House, as the their strength has deteriorated.
The state unit RJD president said the Opposition parties were not taking the special Assembly session seriously since the fate of Arjun Munda government was bleak.
