SOON AFTER the Allahabad High Court pronounced its verdict in the BSP MLAs case, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav secured a confidence vote getting 207 votes in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday.
There was no vote against the motion as major opposition parties the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party staged a walkout while the Congress abstained from voting on the motion. By winning the trust vote comfortably within minutes of the HC verdict, Yadav has obviously tried to set aside all speculations about the fate of his government.
Yet votes polled in favour of the confidence motion raised more questions as the number fell well below its declared support of nearly 240 members in the Vidhan Sabha.
A significant aspect of the confidence motion was that the group of BSP MLAs under scrutiny voted for the motion despite the BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya’s announcement in the House that the 40 MLAs were part of the BSP after the HC order.
The BSP had issued a whip to all its members against taking part in voting, said Maurya who had to come to the House again after walking out to make the point clear to the defecting BSP members. Minister of State for Haj and Minority Welfare Haji Yaqoob Qureshi made this clear on behalf of the defecting BSP MLAs’ group saying, “We voted for the confidence motion.”
{{/usCountry}}The BSP had issued a whip to all its members against taking part in voting, said Maurya who had to come to the House again after walking out to make the point clear to the defecting BSP members. Minister of State for Haj and Minority Welfare Haji Yaqoob Qureshi made this clear on behalf of the defecting BSP MLAs’ group saying, “We voted for the confidence motion.”
{{/usCountry}}Another significant aspect was the Congress’s stand to abstain from voting.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pramod Tiwari said the Congress had decided to abstain from voting on the confidence motion. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a walk out with the Leader of Opposition Lalji Tandon saying his party was against the manner in which government had moved the motion.
Soon after Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey declared that 207 votes had been polled in favour of the motion, BJP member Laxmi Kant Bajpai was heard saying the voting had badly exposed the Mulayam government. The ruling party probably had apprehended that it might not get the expected number of votes.
It was obvious when Minister for Transport Naresh Agarwal drew the Speaker’s attention towards members who were in jail. The Speaker said Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Azam Khan and the secretary, Law, should have made efforts to ensure presence of members who were inside jail.
Interestingly, it was the ruling party that had demanded a lobby division even after the House adopted the motion by a voice vote.
At this point only the BJP members voted against the motion while the BSP and the Congress members had already left the House.
Advocate general Virendra Bhatia briefed the members about the court’s verdict and clarified that the HC had not disqualified the members.
Bhatia spoke briefly about verdict of each of three members of the Allahabad High Court.
Arrangements about seating of 40 members inside the House were to be made by the Speaker, he said. When BJP member Hukum Singh asked him to state the majority judgment, the AG said the court had referred the case back to the Speaker.