The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Thursday proved its majority on the floor of the House with the backing of the Congress, JD(U) and an independent legislator. All the apprehensions of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were put to rest when all seven Congress legislators stood up in unison with the AAP legislators in support of the confidence motion.
A total of 37 members of the House backed the motion tabled by the PWD Minister, Manish Sisodia, that included 28 AAP legislators, seven Congress MLAs, one JD(U) legislator and one Independent. The remaining 32 who voted against the motion included 31 BJP legislators and one Shiromani-Akali Dal legislator.
The pro-tem speaker Mateen Ahmed conducted the trust vote after a four-and-a-half hour debate that ended with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealing to members to vote for “policies that affect the aam aadmi” which his party stands for.
“I am not here to ask for support for my party or for my government but for issues that concern the aam aadmi,” he said in his debut speech that lasted 25 minutes.
“I want to present three issues. Delhi’s aam aadmi has taken the lead in telling the country as to which direction the national politics should go They [legislators] should also decide as to which side they are in the fight between truth and honesty in politics and whether they want to participate in it,” he said, after presenting the 17-point agenda of the AAP government which the party wants to achieve during its five-year tenure.
The agenda largely incorporated the major focus areas already put forth in the party’s election manifesto.
