07-11-2008, 05:12 PM
<b>Govt. to face trust vote in Lok Sabha on July 22</b>
<img src='http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/000200807111861.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, at the UPA meeting to finetune the party's strategy in New Delhi on Friday. A special session of Parliament is to be convened on July 21 and 22. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt.
New Delhi (PTI): The four-year old UPA government will face its first trial of strength in the Lok Sabha on July 22 with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asking coalition partners to "look ahead" after Left's exit while exuding confidence of securing majority.
A two-day special session of the Lok Sabha will be convened on July 21 to take up the vote of confidence and voting will take place the next day, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decided on Friday.
The CCPA meeting came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Pratibha Patil and expressed his Government's readiness to seek a trust vote following Left parties with 59 members withdrawing support to it for going to the IAEA to take forward the Indo-US nuclear deal.
"I have no doubt that we shall prove our majority," Gandhi said in her opening remarks at a meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explained the developments related to the nuclear deal.
As the numbers game intensified, top UPA leaders today held a strategy session here with Gandhi, expressing confidence of garnering numbers to prove their majority.
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of most of the UPA constituents, assessed the numbers that the ruling coalition has on its side after the departure of Left parties, whose dissociation was regretted by Gandhi.
Gandhi said before the Left parties withdrew their support, the Prime Minister had said that he would not operationalise the agreement without taking Parliament into confidence. "We stand by that pledge".
The UPA chairperson said that when the Prime Minister met the President Pratibha Patil on Thursday, he, in keeping with the highest traditions of democracy and the Constitution, handed over a letter stating that the Government wishes to seek a trust vote as early as possible.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mukherjee said that "everybody" was prepared to face the confidence vote.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that all UPA constituents are united and exuded confidence that the Government will prove its majority on the floor of the House.
"If we lose the vote of confidence, then the deal will end. If we win, the deal will continue," he said.
Prasad said that the Left parties were not their enemies and that they would remain together in future.
Seeking to set at rest speculation over their stand, the Shiromani Akali Dal, which has eight MPs in Lok Sabha, today said it has decided in principle to vote against the UPA government during the floor test in the Lok Sabha.
"In principle, it has been decided by the party that it will vote against the UPA government in Parliament, but a final decision will be taken during a meeting of the party's political affairs committee on July 15," senior Akali leader and Punjab minister Kanwaljit Singh told reporters in Jalandhar.
<img src='http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/000200807111861.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, at the UPA meeting to finetune the party's strategy in New Delhi on Friday. A special session of Parliament is to be convened on July 21 and 22. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt.
New Delhi (PTI): The four-year old UPA government will face its first trial of strength in the Lok Sabha on July 22 with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asking coalition partners to "look ahead" after Left's exit while exuding confidence of securing majority.
A two-day special session of the Lok Sabha will be convened on July 21 to take up the vote of confidence and voting will take place the next day, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decided on Friday.
The CCPA meeting came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Pratibha Patil and expressed his Government's readiness to seek a trust vote following Left parties with 59 members withdrawing support to it for going to the IAEA to take forward the Indo-US nuclear deal.
"I have no doubt that we shall prove our majority," Gandhi said in her opening remarks at a meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explained the developments related to the nuclear deal.
As the numbers game intensified, top UPA leaders today held a strategy session here with Gandhi, expressing confidence of garnering numbers to prove their majority.
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of most of the UPA constituents, assessed the numbers that the ruling coalition has on its side after the departure of Left parties, whose dissociation was regretted by Gandhi.
Gandhi said before the Left parties withdrew their support, the Prime Minister had said that he would not operationalise the agreement without taking Parliament into confidence. "We stand by that pledge".
The UPA chairperson said that when the Prime Minister met the President Pratibha Patil on Thursday, he, in keeping with the highest traditions of democracy and the Constitution, handed over a letter stating that the Government wishes to seek a trust vote as early as possible.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mukherjee said that "everybody" was prepared to face the confidence vote.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that all UPA constituents are united and exuded confidence that the Government will prove its majority on the floor of the House.
"If we lose the vote of confidence, then the deal will end. If we win, the deal will continue," he said.
Prasad said that the Left parties were not their enemies and that they would remain together in future.
Seeking to set at rest speculation over their stand, the Shiromani Akali Dal, which has eight MPs in Lok Sabha, today said it has decided in principle to vote against the UPA government during the floor test in the Lok Sabha.
"In principle, it has been decided by the party that it will vote against the UPA government in Parliament, but a final decision will be taken during a meeting of the party's political affairs committee on July 15," senior Akali leader and Punjab minister Kanwaljit Singh told reporters in Jalandhar.