Trust Vote: 21 MPs cross-voted in Lok Sabha

{image-Lok sabha1_23072008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Jul 23: On Wednesday, July 22 UPA government won the trust vote by a margin of 19 votes. It was later known that as many as 21 Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to different political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress cross-voted. Ten members remained absent or abstained from voting. In the division of votes, the UPA Government got 275 votes in its favour, while 256 voted against it.

The Opposition MPs who voted in favour of government were from the BJP, the Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJD), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Janta Dal-Secular (JDS), the Janta Dal (United) JD (U), the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Nagaland People's Party (NPF) and the National Loktantrik Party (NLP).

As many as five BJP MPs - Somabhai Patel from Gujarat, K Manjunath and H T Sangliana from Karnataka, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh from Uttar Pradesh and Chandrabhan Singh from Madhya Pradesh - voted for the government. One MP each from the BJD, the TDP, the JDS, the JD (U), the TRS, the NPF and the NLP while two from the MDMK voted in favour of the government.

On the other hand, seven MPs - six from the Samajwadi Party and one from the Congress- cross-voted against the government. The lone Congressnian who cross voted was Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had recently floated his own political party the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

Those MPs who were absent or abstained from voting were from the BJP, the Shiv Sena, the JD (U), the TDP, the Akali, the Trinamool and the Mizo National Front (MNF). In this case, maximum number of MPs was from BJP while from other parties only one abstained.

As many as five MPs from BJP - Manorama Madhwaraj from Karnataka, Babubhai Katara from Gujarat, Harisingh Rathod from Maharashtra and D C Srikantappa from Chikmagalur in Karnataka - did not turned up for voting. While from other parties, only one MPs did not turned up for yesterday's voting.

ANI