Bihar: Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP resigns ahead of trust vote

Bihar Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha of the BJP resigned on Tuesday following demands by opposition MLAs for his resignation ahead of the floor test in Bihar to prove the seven-party ruling 'Mahagathbandhan' government's majority, and the subsequent CBI raids against various opposition figures.

The Bihar Assembly secretariat, acting on the advice of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, changed the business schedule for the special two-day session late on Tuesday to advance the no-trust motion against Sinha.

Earlier, Sinha had refused to step down. He had said that the no-confidence motion against him was "unclear," as eight of the letters he received "were not as per rule."

Sinha, a senior BJP leader, evidently enjoys the backing of his party, which has vowed to take on "Paltu Kumar", a pejorative it has coined for the chief minister and his many volte faces, and the new government which has been formed through "back door", a charge the party has, ironically, been facing since 2017.

Meanwhile, the homes of two senior leaders of the Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today in connection with the "land-for-jobs" case that alleges irregularities during his father Lalu Yadav's tenure as Railway minister in the UPA-I government.

The raids were carried out on a day when the Nitish Kumar-led government backed by RJD takes a test of majority in the Assembly, two weeks after the Janata Dal (United) parted ways with the BJP and joined hands with RJD.