While the RJD and the SP staged a strategic walk-out, the BSP announced its support for the UPA, making it a cakewalk for the government.
After keeping the government on tenterhooks over cut motions for days, the opposition ended up cutting a sorry figure on the day it mattered most.
The much talked about opposition unity was in tatters on Tuesday as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came up trumps in the numbers game in Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties, the chief sponsors of the cut motions, stood isolated in the Lok Sabha as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) broke ranks with the opposition.
While the RJD and the SP staged a strategic walk-out, the BSP announced its support for the UPA, making it a cakewalk for the government.
In the end, the BJP’s cut motion had 246 MPs voting against it and 162 in favour. In the other cut motion, the government got the support of 289 MPs, while 201 members voted against it.
The day-long drama saw a series of adjournments with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the just-formed conglomerate of 13 parties, including the Left grouping, and the RJD-SP combine kept each other guessing.
While the Congress floor managers were struggling to stitch together the numbers, the bail-out package came from the BSP. In an unusual gesture, Mayawati, a bitter critic of the Congress, announced support to the government. The UP chief minister’s party has 21 members in the House.
The Mulayam Singh-Lalu Yadav combine also provided a morale-booster to the UPA by breaking ranks with the Left. “We would have voted in favour of your cut motions had you assured us that the BJP would not join you,” Lalu said before the voting. Earlier, in their speeches before the introduction of the cut motions, both the Yadavs had lambasted the government for “offering nothing in the budget for the poor and underprivileged”. Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said the finance bill would be introduced on Wednesday.
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