What happened last time when Sonia said 'Who says we don’t have the numbers?'

New Delhi, July 19: A day ahead of no confidence motion, Union Minister Ananth Kumar took a dig at the Congress saying 'Sonia ji's maths is weak.' His statement came a day after there were reports where the UPA Chairperson was quoted as saying that 'who says we don't have numbers.'

"Sonia ji's maths is weak. They had calculated similarly in 1996. We know what happened then. Their calculation is wrong yet again. Modi government has the majority both inside and outside Parliament. NDA will vote against No Confidence Motion. NDA will also support us," said Kumar.

The Congress leader had uttered similar words in 1999.

''We have 272 and we hope to get more,'' she declared outside Rashtrapati Bhavan in April 1999, just as she said she did to the then President KR Narayanan about her party's chances of forming the government and disl odging the BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee one. At the time, 545 was the strength in Parliament.

But her statement turned out to be a miscalculation as her party could not form government after the fall of the BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee government by one vote.

When asked about the no-confidence motion brought by her party among others, Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday retorted: "Who says we don't have the numbers?"

Meanwhile, the BJP has expressed confidence that it would easily get the support of 314 MLAs. There are 535 members in the house and the magic number is 268.

The NDA has 313 members in the House which includes Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. On its own the BJP has 274 members while the Shiv Sena has 18, LJP six and SAD, four.

The opposition on the other had has 222 members which includes 63 from the Congress led UPA. The AIADMK has 37, TMC, 34, BJD, 20, TDP, 16 and TRS, 11.

Well, the numbers, or their claim, will be evident on Friday when the Lok Sabha debates the motion between 11 am and 6 pm.