Vijay Kumar Choudhary Elected As New Bihar Assy Speaker

02 December, Patna

Veteran JD(U) leader and former Bihar Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary was today unanimously elected as Speaker of new 16th state Assembly. Mr Choudhary is a close aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and a five-term MLA. He represents Sarairannaj in Samastipur district.

He was taken to the chair of Speaker by Kumar himself.

Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Prem Kumar also accompanied him. Members of all parties have given their equivocal consent to the election of former Bihar minister and senior JD(U) leader Chaudhary as the 16th speaker of the state assembly.

Choudhary’s election as the new speaker is considered as a well thought strategy given the sensitive nature of the coalition government. As it is the Grand Alliance government headed by Kumar consists of JD(U), RJD and Congress of which RJD is the largest bloc with 80 legislators followed by 71 of the JD(U) and 27 of the Congress.

A post-graduate from Patna University Choudhary came into politics by default as he was a Probationary officer with a nationalised Bank.

But sad demise of his father and Congress MLA Jagdish Prasad Choudhary in 1982 forced him to carry on the legacy.

He won the byelection from Dalsinghsarai in Samastipur caused by thedemise of his Congress legislator as a nominee of the Congress.

He continued to represent the constituency till 1995. Later, he joined the Janata Dal (U) and was state party chief till his induction into Mr Kumar led government in 2010.