Viva Democracy, Bihar style

The fact that they were shown on national television, flinging chairs at each other, might have led some to believe that Bihar MLAs would be on their best behaviour today.

Not so. On Wednesday, slippers were thrown at the Speaker of the Bihar Assembly. Marshalls had to evict Opposition MLAs from the parties headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

Amid the chaos, a woman belonging to the Congress, threw several flower pots around. She claims she was manhandled by marshals.

The woman, Jyoti Singh, a MLC belonging to the Congress went beserk and smashed several flower pots.

As the marshalls tried to control the situation, Singh was dragged through the mud.

An adamant Singh refused to budge as security guards dragged her away from the Assembly.

Seventeen MLAs from Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) have now been suspended for the rest of the session.

Hundreds of police officers were appointed to the Vidhan Sabha premises to control the situation.

The Bihar Assembly turned into a virtual warground on Tuesday as well with opposition members throwing chairs as they demanded an adjournment motion.

The MLAs threw microphones, desks and chairs around.

The "protest" extended to a sleepover with nearly 80 Opposition MLAs curling up on the floor of the Assembly for the night.

The Opposition pressed for the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi for the government's involvement in the alleged irregular withdrawal of Rs 11,412.54 crore from the state exchequer for various welfare schemes.

The protests and accusations are shaped by the fact that Bihar votes for its next government in just a few months. The Opposition seems to view the violence in the Assembly - for two days in a row - as an announcement of sorts of its election campaign.