07-21-2008, 05:28 PM
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Manmohan Singh's trust Vote, ninth in three decades
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New Delhi (PTI): The trust vote moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday is the ninth taken in the Lok Sabha in nearly three decades since 1979.
Of the eight trust votes taken in the last 29 years, the government of the day won six while in two cases the incumbent prime ministers simply resigned without facing the house.
Interestingly, historical facts about trust votes saw Leader of the Opposition L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee clash during a tense debate in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Advani while opposing the motion said it was certainly an "irony" that for the first time the prime minister himself would not be able to vote for his own motion of confidence.
The BJP's prime minister in waiting was quickly corrected when Mukherjee said it was not so.
"Did I K Gujral vote for the confidence motion. Did Deve Gowda vote for the confidence motion," Mukherjee sarcastically asked. Like Singh, both Gujral and Gowda were not members of the Lok Sabha to be eligible to take part in the trust vote.
The concept of a trust vote started only in 1979 because in all the general elections before that - from 1952 to 1977 - the mandate was so decisive that there was no need for a confidence motion.
Manmohan Singh's trust Vote, ninth in three decades
</b>
New Delhi (PTI): The trust vote moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday is the ninth taken in the Lok Sabha in nearly three decades since 1979.
Of the eight trust votes taken in the last 29 years, the government of the day won six while in two cases the incumbent prime ministers simply resigned without facing the house.
Interestingly, historical facts about trust votes saw Leader of the Opposition L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee clash during a tense debate in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Advani while opposing the motion said it was certainly an "irony" that for the first time the prime minister himself would not be able to vote for his own motion of confidence.
The BJP's prime minister in waiting was quickly corrected when Mukherjee said it was not so.
"Did I K Gujral vote for the confidence motion. Did Deve Gowda vote for the confidence motion," Mukherjee sarcastically asked. Like Singh, both Gujral and Gowda were not members of the Lok Sabha to be eligible to take part in the trust vote.
The concept of a trust vote started only in 1979 because in all the general elections before that - from 1952 to 1977 - the mandate was so decisive that there was no need for a confidence motion.