Nayab Singh Saini government offered the chair Chief Minister in Haryana after the resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday won the confidence motion in the Assembly here through a voice vote in assembly having strength of 41 BJP MLAs in the 90-member House for which the majority mark is set at. A two-hour discussion took place on the motion. The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) had issued a whip, asking its 10 legislators to remain absent from the House during voting on the confidence motion. However, when the issue of trust vote was taken up, five of its MLAs left the House. In the 90-member State Assembly, the BJP has 41 MLAs and it also enjoys the support of six of the seven Independents as well as of lone Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda. The JJP has 10 MLAs in the House. The main Opposition Congress has 30 MLAs while the Indian National Lok Dal has one.
The Speaker Gian Chand Gupta fixed two hours for discussing the motion. Jannayak Janata Party MLAs Devender Singh Babli, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ram Niwas and Jogi Ram Sihag left the House when the issue of trust vote was taken up. The JJP had issued a three-line whip requesting its 10 MLAs to remain absent during voting on Confidence Motion in the Assembly. Former State Home cum Health Minister Anil Vij was also present in the House. Before the new CM moved the motion, Congress MLAs raised a question to know from the speaker about the urgency of convening the Assembly session. “There was no emergency”, senior Congress leader, the former Haryana Chief Minister and leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, claiming that proper time has not been given to the MLAs.
Party MLA B.B. Batra asked, “What was the urgency of convening the session?” Hooda asked the Speaker to adjourn the session for at least one hour so that the legislators could reach the Assembly. To this, the Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said it was the duty of the members to reach the House on time saying that let the discussion take place and in the meantime, the members can reach the House. Participating in the discussion, Congress MLA Raghuvir Singh Kadian opposed the trust vote and took on the State Government over the issues of farmers’ plight, law and order, unemployment, alleged repeated liquor, cooperative, registry scams took place in the state. He raised questions over the corruption is rampant, law and order has completely collapsed and unemployment is at its peak. Does the government not have any responsibility towards its citizens?” he asked.
Describing Chief Minister Saini as a gentle person, Kadian claimed the BJP leader has been made a scapegoat by being handed over the crown when the State was passing through unstable times. All congress leaders in the House demanded President Rule should be imposed if the situation prevails at present. “We stand in opposition to this trust vote, if the voting would have been held through secret ballot, at least five members from the treasury benches are likely to oppose it,” said Congress MLAs.
