Cong confident of proving majority despite TMC threat

, Nov 19: Unfazed by Trinamool

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plans, Congress on Monday said the government will prove majority in Lok Sabha even if a no-confidence motion is brought or any other resolution on FDI in retail issue taken up under a rule entailing voting.

"We are fully confident of numbers and will prove majority on the floor of Lok Sabha when ever any such motion comes. We have more than 272," party spokesperson Sandip Dikshit told reporters.

At the same time, he insisted government has no plan to seek a confidence vote on the issue as it had done during the UPA I on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008 when Left parties had withdrawn support from it.

"The situation is now different from that in 2008 when doubts had been raised about the majority of the government as some parties had withdrawn support. This time there is no such situation," he said.

Dikshit said 54 MPs are required to sign any proposal to bring a no-confidence motion and indicated that Banerjee, whose party has only 19 members in Lok Sabha, may not find support among parties for her move to bring the no-confidence motion.

While Dikshit, who spoke from the party podium refrained from attacking Banerjee, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, speaking separately, took a dig at her saying that never in the history of Parliament a party with 19 members has pushed for such an action.

"This is a peculiar situation that, in the history of Parliament, a 19-member party is talking of a no-confidence motion," Tewari told reporters.

The minister rued that Banerjee is reaching out for support on her party's motion to even those opposition parties "which she has fought for the last 30 years."

"I hope she will reintrospect and reconsider her decision seriously because till three months back she was part of this government and TMC ministers were part of it," he at the same time said.

PTI