Gowda and son snub Govt, choose UNPA

MIND MADE UP: JD(S) leader Kumaraswamy says he will not side with the BJP or Congress.

          

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Keywords: UNPA, Vote Of Confidence

New Delhi: The Janta Dal (Secular) will vote against the UPA Government during the floor test in Parliament on July 22, said party leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday.

“In our party there is no doubt—already we have taken the decision in which direction we have to go,” Kumaraswamy, former Karnataka chief minister, told CNN-IBN Correspondent Smitha Nair.

"We have had a government with the Congress and the BJP in our state. We have tested both parties and concluded that in the interest of our party and state we are taking a proper decision,” he said after attending a lunch hosted by United National Progressive Alliance leaders in Delhi.

Kumaraswamy said all three JD(S) MPs are “united” and would vote against the Government, rejecting reports that rebel MP Verendra Kumar would not go with the party on July 22.

The party’s decision is a blow to the Government, which still doesn’t have enough MPs to survive the vote of confidence. JD(S) chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda met prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday evening but the Government failed to win him over.

Gowda, minutes after his son Kumaraswamy’s statement, confirmed JD(S) would vote against the Government and said UNPA leaders would bring out a document on July 23 on national problems

The Government has already lost Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh, who on Sunday announced his three MPs would vote against it.

CNN-IBN projects the Government is still one MP short of the safety mark of 271. There 270 MPs for the Government and 266 against. Five MPs are have not decided their vote, so the Government needs one of those five MPs to bail it out.

Alternatively it needs three to four MPs to abstain on Tuesday, so that the halfway mark comes down to 267 or thereabouts.