Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nand Kishore Yadav is all set to become the new Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
The post became vacant on Monday before the trust vote when Awadh Bihari Choudhary of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was removed as Speaker. Presently Deputy Speaker Maheshwar Hazari is conducting the proceedings of the House.
Mr. Yadav filed his nomination papers at the Assembly Secretariat on Tuesday in the presence of Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and two Deputy Chief Ministers of the BJP – Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha. Senior leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were also present.
No other candidate filed nomination papers. The election of the new Speaker will take place on February 15.
Seasoned politician
A seven-term MLA from the Patna Sahib Assembly seat, Mr. Yadav is a seasoned politician, who has served as Cabinet Minister from 2005 holding different portfolios, including health and tourism. He isknown to be close to the Bihar Chief Minister.
He has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since 1969. The 70-year-old was once the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, apart from being State president of the BJP.
By choosing a Speaker from the Yadav community ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, the JD(U)-BJP ruling alliance wants to send a strong political message to the Opposition RJD, which is politically dependent on the community. As per the recently concluded caste-based survey, Yadavs outnumber other communities in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category with a 14.26% vote share.
The decision has also been taken to consolidate the EBCs (Extremely Backward Classes) as well as the OBCs, apart from the upper castes, who traditionally vote for the BJP.
Long political journey
Mr. Yadav first became a MLA in 1995, but before that, he had been very active in most of the political movements in Bihar, including the JP movement of 1974. He had gone to jail during the JP Movement.
He started his political career in 1978 when he became a councillor of the Patna Municipal Corporation. He became the Deputy Mayor of Patna in 1982. He was also president of the Bihar BJP Yuva Morcha in 1990.
Mr. Yadav served as the BJP State president from 1998 to 2003. When Mr. Kumar first dumped the BJP in Bihar in 2013 ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, then Mr. Yadav was made the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
