Congress-led coalition in India manages victory in confidence vote

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 July 2008, 18:26 GMT]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling UPA alliance on Tuesday scored victory in the confidence vote in the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) in favor of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, enabling the ruling coalition to proceed with the nuclear agreement. The UPA secured 275 votes in 541 seat Lok Sabha, securing four more than the half-way mark.

The motion was adopted with "sizeable cross-voting from opposition members," PTI reported.

News reports in Delhi further said that an opposition BJP member, Ashok Argal, pulled large bundles of currency notes out of his bag on the floor saying that 10 million rupees were given to him by a Samajwadi leader as 'advance' to abstain from voting in the confidence motion.

The charges and counter-charges over the bribery allegations had disrupted proceedings for over two hours.

Six parliamentarians were temporarily freed from prison to take part in the vote.

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