Amid unrest in Bihar, speaker tests positive for Covid, then negative next day

Patna: Vijay Kumar Sinha, speaker of the Bihar Assembly, stated his test results were negative a day after he tested positive for COVID-19, amid a developing political tempest in the state where he will play a crucial role in assessing the legitimacy of any new government.

The BJP MLA Mr Sinha tweeted that his test results came back negative on Monday. He had tested positive a day before.

Many users of the microblogging site expressed surprise at the quickness with which the Speaker was found to be Covid negative as well as the fact that Mangal Pandey of the BJP also holds the health portfolio.

On Monday night, members of the Ethics Committee of the assembly, headed by another BJP leader Ram Narayan Mandal, met Mr Sinha and submitted a report.

While Mr Mandal declined to divulge details, citing confidentiality, sources in the party said the report was about an incident of March last year when opposition RJD MLAs had held the Speaker hostage inside his chair and police were called in.

The sources told Press Trust of India that the report indicated about 18 MLAs, whose names were not known.

Vidhan Sabha secretariat officials said that in such cases, a notice is issued to the MLAs concerned upon the advice of the Speaker, who may decide further action, and even order disqualification, based on how satisfactory or otherwise he deems their reply.

In the assembly, the RJD has 79 MLAs, giving it an effective strength of 242. Since it is the only major party, losing its MLAs will lessen its power to influence political unrest.

The JD(U), the party of chief minister Nitish Kumar, has 44 lawmakers and is supported by four members of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, the party of previous chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, one Independent MLA Sumit Singh, who is also a minister.

(With inputs from PTI)