BJP veteran, liked by Nitish Kumar, is new Bihar Speaker

BJP veteran and seven-time Patna Sahib MLA Nand Kishore Yadav is all set to become the new Speaker of the Bihar Assembly.

He filed his nomination for the position on Tuesday, a day after his predecessor, Awadh Bihari Choudhary of the RJD, was voted out in a no-confidence motion before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s new NDA government won its trust vote in the Assembly.

It will be Yadav’s second stint as Speaker, with his first stint coming after the 2015 Assembly elections.

The 70-year-old comes from an RSS background, and was first elected as an MLA in 1995. He has served as a minister under Nitish Kumar multiple times in the past, but after the 2020 Assembly elections, he was among the veteran BJP leaders in the state who took a back seat.

Now, the party has decided to bring the Yadav leader back to the forefront in its bid to strike an EBC, OBC and upper caste balance in the new ruling dispensation.

Yadav brings rich organisational and administrative experience, having served as BJP state president in the late 1990s and later as Cabinet minister, holding important portfolios such as Road Construction and Health. He was also Leader of Opposition after the NDA split in June 2013, holding this position till the 2015 Assembly polls.

He became the clear choice for the Speaker’s post also because of his close proximity to Nitish Kumar. Former deputy CMs Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, as well as some other senior BJP leaders who were in contention for the role, were ruled out as Yadav emerged as the NDA’s unanimous choice for Speaker.