UPA wins FDI battle
8 Dec 2012 1:14 AM GMT
Adequate floor management by the Congress during the voting on the motion brought by the opposition for the withdrawal of FDI gave a huge relief to the UPA government, with the move getting defeated by 21 votes in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The margin in the end could be called respectable as the government is in the minority in the 245 member upper house of parliament. A similar motion was defeated in Lok Sabha earlier in the week.
The end results sprung quite a surprise as Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari announced that 123 members had voted against the motion and 102 in its favour. Nineteen members of the House did not participate in the voting, which included the Samajwadi Party. The effective strength of the house has been reduced to 244 with the recent demise of union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, bringing the halfway mark down to 122.
UPA has an effective strength of 89 in the house, which got bolstered to 104 on Thursday with 15-member BSP deciding to vote with the government. On Friday, as was expected the nine-member block of Samajwadi Party members walked out of the house bringing the halfway mark down further to 118. With another seven members – seven members - Devender Goud T, Gundu Sudharani and YS Chowdhary of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP); Janata Dal-United MP Bashistha Narain Singh, who was in Bihar; expelled Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pyarimohan Mohapatra; Congress leader Murli Deora, who has undergone an operation and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who is playing in the test series against Engand – absent, the halfway mark further came down to 114. After some confusion, it was found that the government got 123 votes, including the votes of nine nominated members and one of suspended Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. The votes against the motion was bolstered by another five members belonging to independent and other categories going with the government.
Before the vote could take place, house had to be adjourned following uproar over the role of JD-U member NK Singh in formulating the draft for introduction of FDI in retail during NDA regime.
The end results sprung quite a surprise as Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari announced that 123 members had voted against the motion and 102 in its favour. Nineteen members of the House did not participate in the voting, which included the Samajwadi Party. The effective strength of the house has been reduced to 244 with the recent demise of union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, bringing the halfway mark down to 122.
UPA has an effective strength of 89 in the house, which got bolstered to 104 on Thursday with 15-member BSP deciding to vote with the government. On Friday, as was expected the nine-member block of Samajwadi Party members walked out of the house bringing the halfway mark down further to 118. With another seven members – seven members - Devender Goud T, Gundu Sudharani and YS Chowdhary of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP); Janata Dal-United MP Bashistha Narain Singh, who was in Bihar; expelled Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Pyarimohan Mohapatra; Congress leader Murli Deora, who has undergone an operation and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who is playing in the test series against Engand – absent, the halfway mark further came down to 114. After some confusion, it was found that the government got 123 votes, including the votes of nine nominated members and one of suspended Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. The votes against the motion was bolstered by another five members belonging to independent and other categories going with the government.
Before the vote could take place, house had to be adjourned following uproar over the role of JD-U member NK Singh in formulating the draft for introduction of FDI in retail during NDA regime.
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