NDA candidate confident of bagging Bihar Speaker's post

National Democratic Alliance candidate for the Bihar Assembly Speaker's post, Vijay Sinha of the BJP, said that normally the post of Speaker goes to the ruling party as it has the majority in the House.

"The post of Speaker is elected with mutual understanding of ruling and opposition parties and it is based on numbers. Our alliance has projected me on the basis of seniority and we are fully confident about it," Sinha said.

Tarkishore Prasad, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and BJP leader said: "We have the numbers to elect the Speaker in the House and we will prove our majority. Traditionally, it goes to the ruling alliance."

Meanwhile, the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav urged pro-tem Speaker Jitan Ram Manjhi to conduct the oath-taking ceremony of every candidate of his alliance.

Yadav was hinting at Bahubali MLA Anant Singh of the  RJD and Amarjeet Kushwaha of the CPI (ML). The former was elected from Mokama and is currently lodged in jail. Kushwaha has been elected from Ziradei and is lodged in Siwan jail. Both of them are facing criminal charges.

The opposition Mahagathbandhan which has fielded RJD MLA Awadh Bihari Choudhury for the Speaker's post, has 110 seats in the Assembly and there is reportedly a big chance of 5 AIMIM, 1 BSP and one independent candidate voting in its favour. The ruling NDA has 125 seats. In such a situation every vote is important for both the sides.