Chandigarh, October 28
The Haryana Assembly today expressed its confidence in the Bhupinder Singh government, with 47 MLAs standing in favour of the confidence motion moved by the Chief Minister.

As leader of the INLD legislature party Om Prakash Chautala stood up to speak, newly elected Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha told him that he and the leader of the BJP legislature party Anil Vij would be given 10 minutes each, after which Hooda would reply to the debate followed by the voting.

This was not acceptable to the Opposition. The proceedings, which had been a tame affair since morning, suddenly heated up. Chautala said what was the hurry.

Vij said last night he had a nightmare in which he saw a few MLAs in chains. Though he was alleging that the ruling party had kept the Independent MLAs captive, the way he put it made the entire house laugh.

Hooda and former parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala vehemently denied the allegation and said all MLAs were free.

Chautala and Hooda were asking each other questions like “whether 50 is bigger than 40?” and “Is 40 not bigger than 31?” Chautala was making the point that since the Congress could win only 40 seats, while 50 seats had gone to the Opposition, the former had no mandate to rule the state.

Hooda was telling him that since the Congress had 40 seats against 31 of the INLD, it had a better mandate. Chautala said the Congress had no moral right to be in power. However, he had no answer when Hooda and Surjewala asked him if he had the mandate with just 22 seats when he formed the government in 1999 and whether it was morally right for him to become the Chief Minister with the help of defectors at that time.

About an hour was lost in this debate. Chatha tactfully, but firmly, told Chautala repeatedly that he should speak on the motion and let the House decide if the government had the majority support. Urging Chautala to go straight for the voting on the motion, Hooda said, “If we are defeated, we will swap places with you.” Former finance minister Sampat Singh said it had been a well-established convention that the President or Governor always first invited the single largest party to form the government. He was challenged by Sher Singh Badshami of the INLD, who said there was no such rule. However, he was contradicted by Chautala, who said it was the prerogative of the Governor. The Speaker said he had enough of these arguments and if the Opposition did not debate the motion, he would order the voting.

Ultimately, Chautala yielded and said let there be a voting on the motion by making the members stand up in support or opposition of it. Chatha immediately put the motion to voice vote and declared the motion to have been carried.

As he moved on to the next item on the business of the House, Surjewala and former power minister Venod Sharma went to Hooda and whispered in his ear. Hooda immediately requested the Speaker for a head count. Accepting his request, Chatha asked those members who supported the trust motion. After a head count, the Speaker said 47 members had supported the motion, which, therefore, had been carried.

Contrary to the expectations of the session being a stormy one, it turned out to be like a bottle of aerated water without fizz. The fizz was gone when six HJC members absented themselves from the House after the newly elected members were administered the oath. The INLD, which had threatened to pull down the government on the floor of the House, had surrendered after their departure.