New Delhi, July 22
After days of mudslinging, charges and counter-charges of corruption and bribery and claims and counter-claims, the Congress-led UPA government today cruised to a comfortable victory in the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.

The Prime Minister's motion expressing confidence of the House in the Council of Ministers was carried with 275 votes in favour and 256 against while two abstained in a total vote of 487. In a House with an effective strength of 541 members, eight MPs did not turn up for the vote.

As soon as the results came in, tension and anxiety in the ruling benches gave way to instant relief and jubiliation. Having managed to fend off the biggest challenge to his government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today declared: “We have got a solid majority”, adding that it was indeed a convincing victory.

A visibly relieved external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee went a step further, declaring it to be a “Constitutional, moral and physical victory,” and pointed out that the UPA had got 275 votes which was more than half of the full strength of the House. He also slammed the opposition for not having the courtsey to hear the PM out.

It was a particularly satisfying day for the Prime Minister personally as today’s vote has put a formal stamp of approval on the controversial Indo-US nuclear agreement and will allow the government to push ahead with the nuke deal, which had been blocked by the Left parties. More importantly, the Prime Minister has emerged as a politican in his own right after this vote. As AICC leader Digivijay Singh said, “We now have a more confident PM.”

The opposition was predictably shell-shocked as its ranks had been successfully breached, giving the impression that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is in a disarray.

Although a clear picture will emerge in a day or two, earlier claims by Congress leaders that the vote would throw up many surprises turned out to be correct. As many as five BJP MPs, including Somabhai Patel, Manjunath, Brijbhushan Sharan, Chandrabhan Singh and T. Sanglia defied their party whip and voted for the government.

The other abseentees were not present. JD (S) member Shivanna switched sides and voted with the ruling coalition although his leader Deve Gowda had publicly delcared that he would not support the motion.

However, the real surprise was the desertion by two senior TDP members, M. Jagannath and D.K.Audikesavula, who voted in favour of the motion. The TDP MPs were so rattled by this turn of events that they even accosted Audikesavula and led him out of the House after he had cast his vote while agitated Congress members Madhu Yakshi Gowd and Renuka Chaudhary went after them.

In addition, at least three BJP members did not come for the vote. A Shiv Sena and an Akali Dal MP were among the other absentees.

The vote on the confidence motion came at the end of a day which was marred by unseemly scenes of allegations of bribery and intimidation by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The House had to be adjourned repeatedly as slogan-shouting opposition members stormed into the well of the House to demand Prime Minister’s resignation.

As the protest continued unabated and nothing could be heard in the din, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was unable to reply to the debate which was laid on the table of the House.

The drama and the tension continued even after the motion was put to vote. It took nearly an hour to announce the results because the initial figures registered by the electronic voting machine had to be corrected as several votes, including that of Lok Sabha leader Pranab Mukherjee , were not recorded.

These results had shown 253 in favour of the motion and 232 against. There was a buzz of excitement as opposition members could be heard accusing the treasury benches of luring away their MPs.

Even before the final result was announced, ruling alliance members went up to the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to greet them on the victory. Four BJP members, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were permitted to vote from the inner lobby of the House through slips on account of their ill-health.