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BSP decides to abstain

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition is now almost certain to scrape through in the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha tomorrow, with the five-member Bahujan Samaj Party deciding to abstain on the ground that both the Congress and the BJP are anti-Dalit.

This brings the effective strength of the Lok Sabha down to 537, and the number of votes needed to pass the motion 269.

With the volte-face by the four-member Indian National Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala, the BJP now has 267 votes, while the Opposition has 266. The only party that is yet to make its stand public is the Tamil Maanila Congress, which has three MPs.

Senior TMC politicians held several meetings today to decide its stand. The party was caught in a dilemma when its ally in Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, decided to vote for the government.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with TMC president G K Moopanar this evening, where she requested him to vote against the motion. But TMC sources said the party is thinking of abstaining.

Senior TMC politician S R Balasubramaniam said the party would announce its stand tomorrow.

Mayawati, leader of the BSP parliamentary party, said both the BJP and the Congress had only given false promises to the weaker sections. She accused both parties of having colluded to demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992.

She also accused the Congress of hatching a conspiracy to demolish the Idgah mosque in Mathura when she was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh two years back and blame her for it.

She charged former governor Motilal Vora, a Congressman, with having given protection to the goons who launched a murderous attack on the guest house in which her MLAs were accommodated after the BSP withdrew support to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

UNI

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