By Liz Mathew, IANS,
New Delhi : Rebel Congress MP Kuldip Bishnoi said Wednesday that he would vote against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the July 22 trust vote as it was a “golden opportunity” to express his opposition to party president Sonia Gandhi.
Bishnoi, who is MP from Bhiwani and is former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal’s son, has been suspended from the party.
“I am against Sonia Gandhi. So I will vote against the UPA,” Bishnoi told IANS over the telephone from Chandigarh.
“I strongly oppose the India-US civil nuclear deal also,” Bishnoi, who was elected on Congress ticket, added firmly.
Bishnoi, one of the nine Congress MPs from Haryana, said he wanted to protest the “wrong policies” of the UPA government.
“I want to get rid of the Congress tag. I had resigned as a Congress MP and it has not been accepted yet. I thought it is a golden opportunity to be out of that party,” Bishnoi asserted vehemently.
Bishnoi had floated his own political outfit, the Haryana Janhit Congress, in December last year.
The father-son duo had been upset with the Congress leadership since Bhajan Lal was denied the Haryana chief minister’s post after having led the party to one of its biggest victories in the assembly polls in 2005.
Bishnoi’s decision will be a blow to the Congress leadership, which is depending on each vote to see it through in the trust vote. The UPA government faces the floor test next week, following the Left withdrawing its four-year legislative support over the India-US civil nuclear deal.