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July 20, 2008
Amid Uncertainties,
UPA Battles for Numbers
New Delhi
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's beleaguered ruling coalition battled
Sunday to secure numbers to remain in power, just a day before
parliament meets to decide the government's fate over the India-US
nuclear deal.
Both the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and a disparate
opposition were vigorously wooing still undecided independent MPs as
well as small parties to reach the crucial figure of 272 in the
545-member Lok Sabha where one seat is vacant and one MP is barred
from voting.
For the Congress-led UPA, there was good and bad news Sunday.
After initially hinting that he would go with the Congress, Ajit
Singh dealt a blow to the government by announcing that his Uttar
Pradesh-based Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has three MPs, would
vote against UPA. The Janata Dal-Secular, which too has three MPs,
followed suit hours later.
But Congress party managers had some reason to cheer with the
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) finally ending days of suspense and
deciding to support the ruling coalition in Tuesday's vote, expected
late at night. JMM has five MPs.
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, estranged grand-nephew of party chief and
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, also announced he would
vote for the government. And so did the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen
(MIM), whose sole MP Asaduddin Owaisi said in Hyderabad that he
considered the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a greater evil than the
nuclear deal.
On another hectic day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati was the
centre of much attraction as she attended a lunch hosted by Telugu
Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu. Other invitees
included Communist leaders including Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan
and leaders of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Asom Gana
Parishad (AGP) and Janata Dal-Secular.
Elsewhere in the city, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav
and Amar Singh -- who have become the most vocal supporters of the
government -- lampooned the BJP and their former ally, the Left.
"Lal Jhanda aur Lal Krishna Advani ek ho gaye hain!" declared
Mulayam Singh, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, referring to
the Communist Red flag and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
The withdrawal of support July 9 to the UPA coalition by the four
Left parties (59 MPs) over the nuclear deal and the Samajwadi
Party's decision to keep in it power with its 39 MPs have produced
an unheard of war of words between these two long-term political
partners.
In the process, after over four years of rule, the Congress-led
government has been left to desperately hunt for MPs and parties who
will vote for it or at least abstain from the house to help it
indirectly.
The first shock Sunday to the UPA came from Ajit Singh, son of
former prime minister Charan Singh. "RLD will vote against the
government in the confidence motion," he said after a breakfast
meeting with Mayawati.
A desperate Congress had decided to rename Lucknow's Amausi airport
after Charan Singh. But that failed to impress Ajit Singh.
"The Congress is run by Amar Singh," he said. "We also discussed the
performance of the government in the last four years and also the
nuclear deal."
After days of playing hide and seek, JMM chief Shibu Soren declared
after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi Sunday morning that
his party would "vote for the Congress and the UPA".
"There have been lot of talks, some good and some bad. Our MPs took
a decision after seeing the current political situation," he told
reporters.
Soren said that in return for his party's support, the JMM had been
offered "two central ministerial berths" and the post of deputy
chief minister in Jharkhand to his son.
In Chennai, Dayanidhi Maran told a news conference: "I will abide by
the decision of the party on whose ticket I was elected to the Lok
Sabha."
The Samajwadi Party admitted Sunday that only 35 of its 39 Lok Sabha
MPs would side with the government. However, another party MP, the
jailed Atiq Ahmed, said he would vote against the government.
The rapid turn of events Sunday have reportedly put both the UPA and
NDA at par in the Lok Sabha with 269 MPs each -- amid the
possibility that the game of numbers can go either way.
With Mayawati threatening to wean away more MPs from the Samajwadi
Party in the run-up to the trust vote, the ruling coalition was
working overtime to keep its constituents together.
Also Sunday, BJP leader L.K. Advani told a meeting here that the
political crisis was the ruling coalition's own making.
"It is true that Manmohan Singh's government has plunged into a deep
crisis - a crisis that is its own making," Advani said. "Whether it
will survive or not will be known on the night of July 22."
IANS
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July 20, 2008
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