First day of session ends in chaos amid Oppn stir
PATNA, July 22 -- The Monsoon Session of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha got off to a stormy start on Monday, with the Opposition raising the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll and spurt in crime both inside as well as outside of the House. The House was adjourned after obit reference till Tuesday.
As soon as the session began, the CPI-ML legislators wearing black stood up saying that the SIR was an exercise to delete names of voters, especially those from the marginalised section and minorities, and it thus should be withdrawn, but Speaker Nand Kishor Yadav continued with the day's proceedings.
Akhtarul Imam of the AIMIM walked into the well with a poster against SIR, which the marshal snatched. The entire Opposition stood up amid sloganeering against SIR and demanding that chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was in the Assembly, should break his silence over it. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was also in the House.
The Opposition, including the RJD, Congress and the Left parties, questioned the intention of the Election Commission to start SIR right before the assembly election in the state and said that it was being deliberately done to remove voters. They also sat with posters and banners at the Vidhan Sabha entrance and also raised the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
Bhai Birendra of the RJD said that the Election Comission was a Constitutional body, but it's been acting on the direction of PM Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar to remove the names of poor and marginalised sections from the voter lists.
Mehboob Alam of the CPI-ML said that when the electoral roll was valid in 2024 Lok Sabha elections when the NDA formed the government, how could it be termed invalid in 2025? "They are trying to win in the upcoming elections by cheating and we will not let it happen," he added.
The House was adjourned till Tuesday soon after the obit reference of eight former legislators, who passed away since the Budget session, but before that deputy CM Samrat Choudhary tabled the first supplementary budget Rs.57,946.2541-crore, which includes Rs.36,169.34 crore in annual scheme and Rs.21,773.27 crore in establishment and committee expenditure.
This is the biggest supplementary budget presented in Bihar. Bihar government had passed a budget of Rs.31,69,895-crore Budget on March 3 for 2025-26 - up from Rs.278,725.72 crore in 2024-25 by Rs.38,169.30 crore.
The budget includes central and state share for Centrally-sponsored schemes and funds for state schemes, while the establishment and committed expenditure include funds for salary payment in different departments, electricity subsidy, arrears and backlog payment to Panchayati Raj institutions and relief for disasters.
This is the last session of the 17th Vidhan Sabha, which will conclude on July 25 with just four more sittings.
However, the government has planned to bring 12 bills in the next three days, including eight amendment bills and four new Bills.
Later, an all-party meeting was called to work out floor strategy. The CM was also present at the meeting.
"We want the House to run smoothly and the government will answer every question, but the Opposition has no agenda and they are jittery over the poll prospects," said deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha.
After the Opposition's meeting, leader of Opposition in the assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, said that they would continue to press for discussion on the SIR. "We will raise it all through the session and want discussion at any cost," he added....
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