Patna,(BiharTimes): Speaker of the Bihar Assembly, Uday Narayan Chaudhary, on Saturday stripped the BJP off the status of main opposition party in the state Assembly. This status may now be granted to the JD(U) as is being demanded by the party.

Justifying his decision the Speaker said that he had done so by following the rules laid down for conducting the business of the House.

“This is my compulsion as per the rule. I have called the leaders of all the party for a meeting on Feb 16,” he said.This is a strategy adopted by the camp of the Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish Kumar to counter the demand of the voting through secret ballots made by chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

The main opposition status is granted to the largest opposition party in the House. The BJP has 87 MLAs while the Nitish camp claims that 97 legislators are with them.The opposition BJP has flayed the Speaker’s decision.