Prime Minister of India Agrees to Request a Vote of Confidence
India’s president Wednesday asked Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to prove his parliamentary majority in a vote of confidence after a key ally withdrew from the ruling coalition.
“The president has advised the prime minister to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha [lower house],” a statement from President Kocheril Raman Narayanan’s office said after opposition parties urged to Narayanan to act.
The United News of India reported today that the lower house will vote on the confidence motion Saturday.
“We will honor the word of the president. But realistically speaking, there is no need for it,” Vajpayee was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying.
Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on small parties and the fear of early elections to keep it in power, while the opposition is hoping to cobble together an alternative government.
The year-old coalition, India’s fourth since 1996, appeared in desperate need of new allies after the regional All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam finally completed its acrimonious and drawn-out divorce from the BJP.
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