Government wins vote of confidence

Manmohan SinghThe government of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today won the vote of confidence, which he had moved yesterday by a 19-vote margin.

A division was sought, which Lok sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee granted, at the insistence of the opposition, which rejected the result of the voice vote.

At the time of going to press,  the electronic board displayed 275 members having voted in favour of the motion of confidence with 256 against, and 10 abstentions.

The result of the vote of confidence left the Congress, its UPA allies, including new ally Samajwadi Party that had stepped in to support the government after the Left walked out, jubilant, while the opposition BJP and its NDA allies and the Left parties appeared dejected at having been unable to bring down the government.

The confidence motion was put to vote by Lok Sabha speaker after prime minister Manmohan Singh's concluding speech was interrupted due to heckling by opposition parliamentarians over bribery charges.

The voting was both automated and manual, to avoid counting errors.