Amid Bihar turbulence, Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha recovers from Covid in a day

Patna, Aug 09: Amid political upheaval in Bihar, Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha who tested positive for Covid a day ago, noted that his test results have come negative on Monday. He is likely to play a key role in determining the legitimacy of any new formulation.

Sinha, a BJP MLA, ebulliently announced on Twitter that his test reports on Monday were negative. A day earlier, he had tested positive.

Many took to the micro-blogging site to express astonishment at the speed with which the Speaker was declared Covid negative, and the fact that the health portfolio is also held by BJP's Mangal Pandey.

On Monday night, members of the Ethics Committee of the assembly, headed by another BJP leader Ram Narayan Mandal, met Sinha and submitted a report.

While Mandal declined to divulge details, PTI sources in the party said the report was about an incident of March last year when opposition RJD MLAs had held the Speaker hostage inside his chair and police was called in.

The RJD has 79 MLAs in the assembly, which has an effective strength of 242. It is the single largest party and disqualification of its MLAs will reduce its ability to steer a political upheaval.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which may or may not pull the plug on the alliance, has 44 legislators, and enjoys the support of one Independent MLA Sumit Singh, who is also a minister and four members of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha.