The Hindu : National : Manmohan, sixth PM to seek trust vote

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 13, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Manmohan, sixth PM to seek trust vote

New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the sixth head of government to seek a vote of confidence from the Lok Sabha when he formally moves the trust motion on July 21-22.

Here is a look at how Dr. Singh’s predecessors fared on the trust vote.

Since the sixth Lok Sabha, three governments have fallen for lack of confidence while two Prime Ministers have resigned even before moving the motion.

Let down at the last minute by the Congress, Charan Singh resigned as Prime Minister on August 20, 1979 without moving the motion. The same fate befell Atal Bihari Vajpayee on May 28, 1996.

V.P. Singh moved a motion of confidence after the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew support to his government on November 7, 1990. However, with the Congress, the breakaway Chandrasekhar group and the BJP joining hands, he lost the vote. The score: For-152; Against- 356. H. D. Deve Gowda lost the confidence vote on April 11, 1997 – after the Congress withdrew support to the United Front Government led by him. The score: For –190; Against –338.

In both cases, the conclusion was foregone with the numbers clearly stacked against the incumbent. However, it was a close call for Mr. Vajpayee when, following the withdrawal of support by Jayalalithaa, he sought a confidence vote on April 17, 1999. He lost by a single vote. The score: For-269; Against – 270.

The Lok Sabha record also shows a total of 26 no-confidence motions moved against incumbent regimes since 1952. Barring one instance on July 15, 1979 when Morarji Desai resigned after an inconclusive debate, all others were decisively defeated. The first of these was moved against Jawaharlal Nehru in August 1963. The motion, moved by J.B. Kripalani, was defeated by a thumping majority of 347 votes. Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister faced as many as 15 no-trust motions, 12 between 1966 and 1975 and three between 1981 and 1982. She sailed through all of them.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National

News Update

Stories in this Section