First round of debate over, numbers fight on

HOUSE AT WORK: Two-day debate on vote of confidence resumes on Tuesday.

          

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted on Monday that he was “100 per cent” confident of winning the trust vote as the UPA and Opposition clashed in Parliament at the start of a two-day debate on the India-US nuclear deal.

The Opposition was confident of pulling down the Government with the Left, BJP and Third Front leaders accusing the UPA of compromising national interest.

On the numbers front, CNN-IBN projects that the UPA has 269 votes in favour, 268 against, 3 MPs are undecided and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is the sole MP who has publicly said that she would abstain on Tuesday.

The Government will not need 271 MPs to vote for it though, because at least 10 MPs will abstain during voting, sources tell CNN-IBN. Half of these MPs could be from the BJP—2 from the Karnataka BJP, two from the Rajasthan BJP and one from the Gujarat BJP. Also included in that list of 10 MPs are two Shiv Sena MPs, two from the JD U and 1 from the BJD.

Trust me, N-deal good: Manmohan

The trust vote debate began with the Prime Minister introducing a one-line motion seeking support of the Lok Sabha for his Government—after entering the house flashing a V sign.

Initiating the debate, Singh said the trust vote was "fully avoidable" because he had promised to return to Parliament before making the nuclear deal operational. "I have repeatedly assured all, including the Left parties, that I myself would come to the guidance of parliament before operationalising the nuclear deal, if we were allowed to go to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to finalise the India-specific safeguards agreement)," he said.

In a speech that aides said he himself drafted after coming to Parliament around 10.30 a.m., Singh said he regretted that the Government had to seek a trust vote at a time its attention was focussed on controlling soaring food prices.

And, in an apparent dig at CPI-M leader Karat, Manmohan Singh praised the "sagacity, wisdom and visionary leadership" of CPI-M veterans Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet who he said were the architects of the 2004 decision to form a UPA-Left coalition Government.

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External Affairs Minister Mukherjee, in his speech later, said the nuclear deal would bring an end to the nuclear apartheid and isolation that India had been subjected to for 30 years.