Dignity of the House must be maintained: Bihar Assembly Speaker

Patna, Nov 28 (IANS) Bihar Assembly on Thursday witnessed a ruckus after RJD MLAs, including Bhai Virendra, reached near the Chief Minister's chair.

This prompted a sharp reaction from Assembly Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, who issued a stern warning about severe consequences for such actions. He condemned the behaviour as unacceptable and emphasised the need to maintain the dignity of the House.

The incident drew strong criticism from other leaders as well, including Minority Welfare Minister Jama Khan, who described the act as "hooliganism" and expressed confidence that the people of Bihar would hold those responsible accountable in the 2025 elections.

Khan stressed that such actions tarnish the image of the legislative process and are not in keeping with the decorum expected in the Assembly.

RJD MLA Bhai Virendra has clarified that he and other MLAs did not sit on the Chief Minister's seat but approached it to make a point about seating the arrangements.

According to Bhai Virendra, their action was a protest against the disregard for fixed seating arrangements in the House, particularly by some rebel MLAs from the RJD, Congress, and others such as Chetan Anand, Prahlad Yadav, Sangeeta Kumari, Murari Gautam and Neelam Devi were sitting on the ruling side. Bhai Virendra said they were illegally occupying seats on the ruling side.

The issue began when RJD's Alok Mehta raised a question about why MLAs were not sitting in their designated places, asking the Speaker to take action against those violating protocol.

This led to Bhai Virendra and others moving near the Chief Minister's seat to emphasise the need for adherence to seating norms.

He remarked, "If others don’t sit in their allocated places, we might also go and occupy ministers' seats."

The incident sparked a heated exchange, with JDU MLA Sanjeev Kumar calling it an unprecedented and unfortunate event for the Assembly.

Similarly, RJD MLA Mukesh Roshan added that the BJP and others have long been vying for power and raised concerns about the ongoing disregard for Assembly decorum.

--IANS

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