In a major setback for Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, the Patna High Court on Thursday barred eight rebel Janata Dal (United) from voting during the confidence motion scheduled for Friday.
The High Court’s order is expected to have an extensive effect on the support of Manjhi at the time of floor test in thestate assembly.
Manjhi who claims the support of majority of MLAs is set to organize a show of strength of those supporting him today. Just before the test on Friday, the Bihar CM will also hold a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Both Manjhi and the JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar are in talks with the MLAs to protect their support.
On Thursday afternoon, Bihar Speaker Udai Narain Choudhary announced that JD(U) will enjoy the position ofOpposition in the Bihar Assembly replacing Nand Kishore Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the reports, Choudhary is believed to a loyalist of Nitish. After the declaration BJP MLAs in Bihar staged protest outside the speaker’s chamber and accused him of being ‘biased’.
