Vijay Kumar Sinha – Likely new Bihar deputy CM who cut his teeth as an aggressive Speaker, LoP

As Nitish Kumar and his JD(U) return to the NDA fold to form a new government in Bihar, one of the two deputy chief ministers from the BJP is likely to be Vijay Kumar Sinha, the representative from Lakhisarai who is the current Leader of the Opposition (LoP). On Sunday, as a precursor to that, Sinha was elected as deputy leader of the BJP legislature party.

A Bhumihar leader, a civil engineer by qualification and a former RSS worker, Sinha had become the BJP’s first-ever Speaker in Bihar after the party came to power in alliance with the JD(U) in 2020. The 56-year-old was a surprise choice for the post, believed to have been picked essentially to keep the upper caste leadership of the party happy.

He pipped to thepost-BJP veterans like Nand Kishore Yadav and Prem Kumar, whose names had been doing the rounds. A first-generation politician from a business family, he had boasted during his first election campaign in 2010 that he had enough money to sustain himself and that he had joined politics for social service and some recognition. What worked in Sinha’s favour to be named Speaker were his three terms as MLA (winning Lakhisarai consecutively since 2010) and earlier stint as labour resources minister. He was also seen to have been groomed by the most respected BJP face in Bihar and former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.

As Speaker, Sinha proved his worth to the BJP by not being intimidated by Nitish or the then Opposition RJD.

In March 2021, Sinha had faced Opposition criticism for not “properly handling” the roughing up of an RJD and a Congress MLA on the Assembly premises after the House had passed the Special Armed Police Act, giving more powers to police to search people, without a warrant, and make arrests, amid protests