By IANS,
Bhopal : The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has no plans to table a no-confidence motion over the WikiLeaks claims that the Congress bribed MPs to win a trust vote in 2008 but will raise the issue in the house, says Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Yadav.
The “bitter” experience of the last trust vote, which saw 19 MPs switch sides, was still fresh in people’s minds, the NDA leader admitted.
“Not only are we short of numbers this time, we had a very bitter experience in the last no-confidence motion as 19 MPs switched over sides in the votes cast for the motion,” Yadav told IANS.
Of the 543 seats in the 15th Lok Sabha, the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has 262 members and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA has 159.
“But this does not mean we will not oppose the government in the house,” Yadav added.
US diplomatic cables put out by WikiLeaks and published here allege that payoffs were made to MPs to ensure a majority for the Congress-led government in the confidence vote following differences over the India-US nuclear deal in 2008.
As per the cables, a US diplomat was told that Rs.50-60 crore was kept aside by the Congress to pay some opposition members before the trust vote was put to vote in July 2008.