By IANS,
Raipur: Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government Tuesday defeated a no-confidence motion moved by opposition Congress.
The BJP, which is in power in the mineral-rich state since December 2003, won the motion by a margin of 48-37 votes at the end of a 23-hour-long debate in the winter session of the 90-member assembly.
This was the first no-confidence motion against the Raman Singh government in its second tenure that began Dec 12, 2008.
The motion, moved by Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey, came up for discussion Friday at 12 noon. The house witnessed intense debate on the motion Friday, Monday and then Tuesday.
Chief Minister Raman Singh, Public Works Department Minister Brijmohan Agrawal and other cabinet colleagues strongly countered Congress charges during the debate and claimed “the state has become a power (energy) hub in the country during the BJP regime”.
The Congress members alleged the “state has become a corruption hub during Raman raj”.
They alleged that the tribal population during the BJP regime came down by over three percent, 700 forested villages were uprooted, 10,000 farmers committed suicide and 7,000 girls of poor families went missing due to human trafficking.
Congress state president Nandkumar Patel said the government was mired in corruption scandals worth Rs.20,000 crore.
Members of the treasury benches strongly opposed the allegations.
Agrawal, pointing towards the opposition benches, said: “What’s the need to bring a no-confidence motion this time? Is the state witnessing a political tremor?”
“Congress has brought the motion just because its state leaders are battling for survival,” he added.
The BJP has a strength of 49 members while the Congress has 39 and the Bahujan Samaj Party has two legislators in the house.