Prove majority if you can: BJP to PM

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New Delhi, Jul 5 : After the SP’s clear indication that it will not be a part in, “defeating a secular government” and the Left’s apparent move to withdraw its support to the UPA over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP on Saturday, challenged the Manmohan Singh government to seek a vote of confidence in Parliament. The SP’s sudden turnaround has also resulted in the decay of the UNPA, which said the SP will no more be a part of the so called ‘third front’ alliance.

The Left, on the other hand, said it is still waiting for a reply from external affairs minister , Pranab Mukherjee, on the government’s next move regarding the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.

“For all practical purposes, the Manmohan Singh government has lost majority in Lok Sabha. The government should immediately convene a session of Parliament and seek a vote of confidence,” Opposition leader in Lok Sabha LK Advani said, at a press conference here. The BJP’s sudden intereference in the ongoing confusion within the ruling coalition is also seen as an attempt by the party to speed up the process for the next general elections. “The government has been reduced to a charade. It has lost the moral legitimacy to govern. For survival, the government seems ready to trade off anything,” Advani, also the prime ministerial candidate for the NDA, said.

The NDA had already launched its election campaign by organising a rally at Kanpur last week. The Congress, however, ridiculed Advani’s statement and said that the government is a majority government as, “nobody had yet withdrawn” the support to it.

Meanwhile, ending all speculations, the SP said that it is willing to support the Congress-led UPA at the Centre. “Communalism is a bigger threat than imperialism today. Today the Left parties, the BSP, BJP and (Om Prakash) Chautala may vote together. If our friends from the Left want to defeat the government with the BSP and BJP, we don’t want to say anything. But we can’t do this work,” SP general secretary, Amar Singh, told reporters here. However, he did not give a clear answer when asked whether his party will vote for a confidence motion by the government. “Let the confidence motion come then we will decide,” he said. But he said that the SP will support the nuclear deal on the basis of “national interest.” “It is neither a Hindu deal nor a Muslim deal,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UNPA made it clear that it will move ahead without the SP and reiterated its opposition to the nuclear deal. “When the UPA came to power, these people (SP) supported them despite bearing humiliation. They were also running the government in Uttar Pradesh with the

support of the Congress,” INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala said.