Opposition MLAs and MLCs continued their strong protest on the second day of the Monsoon Session of the Bihar Assembly over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
They arrived at the House dressed in black to register their protest over the two major issues and sat at the main gate in an attempt to prevent others from entering. They also briefly stopped Assembly Speaker Nand Kishor Yadav, who was later escorted by House Marshals.
As soon as the Speaker proceeded with the business of the day, the MLAs rushed to the Well of the House with banners and posters, demanding an immediate discussion on the pressing issue of voter list revision. When the Speaker denied their request, the members became more assertive, raising slogans and disrupting the proceedings. Consequently, the House was adjourned till Wednesday.
Despite the uproar, six bills were passed in the Assembly. The Monsoon Session, the last before the assembly polls, will continue until Friday.
Earlier, requesting the Speaker to halt the proceedings and discuss the issues raised by the Opposition, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said that if the ongoing revision of the voter list is not stopped, lakhs of people in Bihar will be deprived of their right to vote.
“This is a very serious matter. We are not going to sit silently on this issue. Our fight against the voter list revision will continue,” he added.
Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram accused the ruling alliance of attempting to snatch away the democratic rights of the people of Bihar, guaranteed by the Constitution, in the name of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
“How can we allow the ruling parties to run the House when they are trying to disenfranchise voters on a mass scale?” he said.
When RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddiqui requested Legislative Council Chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh to hold a discussion on the matter, he refused, saying it would be unconstitutional.
BJP State President Dr Dilip Jaiswal strongly condemned the opposition members’ protest, including their decision to wear black clothes and the continuous disruption in the Legislative Assembly. He said that while everyone has the right to disagree in a democracy, disrupting proceedings is an insult to the people’s mandate.
He added that the issues raised by the Opposition require dialogue and debate—not sloganeering and disorder.