The United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the governing alliance in India elected in 2004, faced its first confidence vote in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament) on 22 July 2008 after the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front withdrew support over India approaching the IAEA for the Indo-US nuclear deal. The vote was so crucial that the UPA and the opposition parties summoned MPs from their sick beds and even from prison cells to take part in the vote, which was eventually won by the Government.

Before the vote

The following list indicates the official position of the political parties before the voting. UPA and supporters: 268 MPs for the government NDA and others: 263 MPs against the government Undecided: 11 MPs Non-voting: 1 MP

Voting

In the 543 member Lok Sabha, the UPA needed 272 votes for the government to enjoy a simple majority. The UPA won the confidence vote with 275 votes to the opposition's 256, (10 members abstained from the vote) to record a 19-vote victory.

Abstentions

Ten members abstained from the voting despite some of them having received strict contrary instructions from their parties. Among the 10, 2 MPs followed their party decision of abstaining so as to not be seen as supporting the UPA or the BJP, Left led opposition. Those two were: The other eight members who abstained defied their party stand. These eight were:

Cross voting

The seven members of the UPA who cross-voted against the government were: Conversely, there were at least four members of the opposition who cross-voted in favour of the government proposal. These 4 were

Allegations of bribery

Three BJP MPs – Ashok Argal (Morena), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla) and Mahavir Bhagora (Salumber) amidst discussion walked towards the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and placed two brown and black leather bags on a table. They pulled out bundles of inr 1000 and alleged that Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had tried to offer them bribe to vote in favour of the government. The BJP MP Kulaste, alleged that Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmed Patel, an aide to Sonia Gandhi tried to offer bribe of inr 90000000 to remain absent from the confidence vote. Amar Singh denied the charges. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked the police chief of New Delhi to investigate the bribery issue. Indian news channel CNN IBN which carried out the sting operation by recording using hidden cameras agreed to share the material with Indian authorities. A joint parliamentary committee formed to investigate the issue submitted its report to the Lok Sabha on 15 December 2008, after finding no evidence for bribery against the MPs Amar Singh and Ahmad Patel, thereby exonerating them.

Expulsions

As a result of not obeying the instructions issued by their political parties, many MPs were expelled as an aftermath of the vote.

Animal sacrifice

External links to speeches