BJP calls for trust vote as numbers elude UPA

NUMBER CRUNCHING: Even with the support of SP, RLD, JD(S) and Mamata, UPA falls short of the half-way mark.

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Keywords: SP , Congress

New Delhi: After intense political drama for days, Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani has taken a swipe at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prove his numerical legitimacy in the Lok Sabha.

Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, demanded, "The session of Parliament be immediately convened and Dr Manmohan Singh seek the confidence of the House."

The belligerent Leader of Opposition wants the Congress-led UPA to prove its majority and has termed the Samajwadi Party's support to the UPA on the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal as opportunistic without any common ideology.

The BJP said the partnership has been forged with the sole purpose of retaining power.

The Congress though is unperturbed.

All India Congress Committee Media Secretary Tom Vadakkan said, "When a Leader of Opposition, who has an important role to play in democracy, acts and behaves the way he does, is very unfortunate."

The BJP'S strategy is clear. It wants a Parliament vote to embarrass the UPA and expose the divisions within the UPA-Left alliance.

Number crunching

• Total seats: 543
• Half-way mark: 272
• Cong + Allies (UPA): 153 + 72 = 225
• UPA + Left: 225 + 59 = 284
• UPA + SP- Left: 225 + 39 - 59 = 264
• UPA + SP + Ajit Singh's RLD + HD Deve Gowda's JD(S) + Mamata Banerjee's TC: 225 + 39 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 271
• Role of 6 Independents will be crucial

The BJP could not have asked for a more favourable political climate. Now its focus besides price rise and the soft peddling on terror by the Central Government would also be on terming the UPA government as a coalition that is willing to cling onto power at all costs.