The BJP on Thursday expressed the confidence that it would be able to defeat the Opposition sponsored no-confidence motion on Friday, as it has a majority in the Lok Sabha. It was also hopeful of support from some Opposition parties.
“The numbers are very clear. The BJP by itself has a majority in the Lower House. We have nearly 314 members within the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] and there are many other parties which are likely to oppose this no-confidence motion because this is completely pointless,” BJP national spokesperson G.V.L Narasimha Rao told reporters outside Parliament.
“We have the numbers and we have the moral fibre to fight this negative Opposition, which is only trying to put the country on the path of negativity,” he said.
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The motion will be the first since the BJP-led NDA government came to power four years ago. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s decision to accept the motion moved by former BJP ally TDP and others came on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament on Wednesday.
Swamy slams TDP
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy took potshots at the TDP, questioning their intent when their Ministers were part of the government in the past four years.
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“The TDP is moving the resolution and saying four years of BJP rule is useless. In fact, there were [TDP] Ministers in these four years. In a democracy, the Opposition must be vigorous, must expose with facts and figures,” he told reporters,.
Sources in the BJP said the government would get the support of at least 314 members in the Lower House, which has an effective strength of 533 members.
The Trinamoolm Congress has said it will support the no-confidence motion and that a whip has been issued to its members asking them to be present in the House on Friday.
'Sonia's maths is weak'
The BJP also made light of the Congress’s claim that the Opposition had the numbers to back its no-confidence motion against the government.
Asked about Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s claim that the Opposition had numbers, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar took a dig at her, saying, “Sonia Gandhi’s maths is weak.”
Mr. Kumar also recalled that Gandhi, as the then Congress chief in 1999, had claimed to have the support of 272 MPs, the majority mark in the Lok Sabha, after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.
Echoing similar sentiments, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said the government had the strength in the House to defeat the motion if one went by Indian mathematics and wondered if Sonia Gandhi knew some other mathematics.