By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government is set to lose the trust vote in parliament July 22, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Tuesday.
“The Congress is indulging in horse-trading by misusing money power. We are confident this government is not going to survive the trust vote,” a confident Malhotra told reporters here.
Malhotra, deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, said this while announcing a meeting here Thursday of the chief ministers of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) states to discuss a strategy to defeat the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the trust vote.
The meeting is likely to be attended by all 12 chief ministers of the NDA-ruled states, said BJP sources.
Malhotra said his party was confident that the UPA government had the backing of only 250 MPs, far short of the halfway mark of 272 in the 545-member Lok Sabha.
The Left parties, with 59 MPs in the lower house, withdrew support to the government last week over the India-US nuclear deal, reducing the Congress-led UPA to a minority.
The BJP leader said the core group of the party was meeting almost daily to study the political developments. Party sources said that most meetings took place at the residence of senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the basis of the Samajwadi Party’s support to the UPA on the India-US nuclear deal.
“Two years ago US President George Bush came to India and at that time the Samajwadi Party burnt his effigies and held countrywide demonstrations against him.
“Now (Samajwadi Party general secretary) Amar Singh suddenly finds (BJP leader L.K.) Advani to be more dangerous than Bush. We would like to congratulate Amar Singh on this about turn,” Prasad said.