New Delhi: With just a few hours to go before that crucial floor test in Parliament, it’s thumbs up from a confident prime minister.
According to CNN-IBN projections at 1400 hrs, the UPA goes in with a definite edge in the numbers game: 272 MPs in its favour as against 265 who do not support it.
That figure puts the UPA slightly ahead of the halfway mark of 269. There are likely to be four abstentions.
Agencies report: The battle for numbers that will decide the fate of the UPA government in the trust vote entered the last lap with its hopes hinging on abstentions and last minute defections from rival camps.
Hours before a cliff hanger trust vote, there was good tidings for the Congress-led UPA when the two-member national Conference announced it will vote for teh ruling coalition while a lone Mizo National Front (MNF) MP Vanlalzawma said he will abstain.
Ending the suspense on which way the NC will go, the party chief Omar Abdullah said this morning his party will vote in favour of the UPA government.
As the groupings for and against the government tried to rustle up the numbers, the fencesitters held centre stage amid reports eight to ten NDA MPs may either abstain or violate party whips that will help the ruling coalition pull through.
Possibly sniffing a triumph, a more confident Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flashed another victory sign and thumbs up as he strode confidently into the Lok Sabha this morning to attend the proceedings.
The UPA however was not without any anxious moments when Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh alleged that six party MPs were being forcibly kept by BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Mayawati in the UP bhavan here ahead of the trust vote. The Samajwadi has a strength of 38 MPs that will largely help the government to sail through.
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