Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: Cong works on plan for House vote

Cong works on plan for House vote
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ASIANAGE on 04 July, 2008 02:27:21
 
By Mukesh Ranjan
New Delhi
July 4: As part of a strategy to pre-empt the Opposition from bringing
no-confidence motion against the government in an event of the Left parties
withdrawing support over the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal, the ruling
Congress managers are working overtime on a plan to seek a vote of confidence on
the floor of the House.
Since Speaker Somnath Chatterjee would be travelling to Malaysia till August 10
to attend the meeting of the Commonwealth Association of parliamentarians and to
avoid deputy-Speaker Charanjeet Singh Atwal, who is a BJP MP, chairing the Lok
Sabha, the government has, however, decided to call the monsoon session of the
Parliament only after the Speaker’s arrival.
Sources close to the Congress strategy team revealed that Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh held a series consultations with his senior Cabinet colleagues
and discussed prospective situations arising out of actual withdrawal of support
by the Left parties. Though, sure of the numbers, as Samajwadi Party with its 39
MPs has decided to come on board with the government on the issue, Mr Singh also
held discussions with senior most minister in his Cabinet Pranab Mukherjee, who
arrived here late on Thursday from Egypt and a few others.
"After rounds of discussions, it was broadly decided that before BJP or the
Opposition NDA brings a no-confidence (motion against the government), the Prime
Minister should move a confidence motion," sources said.
Interestingly, in case of a confidence motion, the government has to win the
numbers on the floor of the house under rule 184, which stipulates only sitting
and voting.
But in case no-confidence motion, the government would need to muster the magic
number of 272 in its favour.
So, the strategists feel that it would be easy for them to save the government
by only concentrating on the floor co-ordination.
The Speaker will be away from August 1 to 10 and the strategists are wary of
the deputy Speaker, who could allow the Opposition to move a motion of
no-confidence.