The Nayab Singh Saini government in Haryana on March 13 won the confidence motion in the Assembly, in Chandigarh, through a voice vote. 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.
Meanwhile, former Haryana CM Khattar announced resignation from the State Assembly.
5 JJP MLAs leave House
Earlier in the day, Haryana State BJP president and MP Nayab Singh Saini, who was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Haryana, moved the confidence motion during a special State Assembly session on March 13 and is set to face a floor test.
The Speaker fixed two hours for discussing the motion. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) 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 positively absent during voting on Confidence Motion” in Haryana Assembly.
Former State Home Minister Anil Vij was present in the House.
Before the Chief Minister moved the motion, Congress MLAs sought to know from Speaker Gian Chand Gupta about the urgency of convening the Assembly session.
Proper time not given: Hooda
“There was no emergency,” senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said and claimed that proper time was not given to the MLAs.
Party MLA B.B. Batra asked, “What was the urgency of convening the session?” Mr. 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 said it was the duty of the members to reach the House on time.
Mr. Gupta, however, said, “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 liquor scam and cooperative scam.
“So many scams — liquor scam, registry scam, cooperative scam — took place. Corruption is rampant, law and order has collapsed and unemployment is at its peak. Does the government not have any responsibility towards its citizens?” he asked.
Unstable times, says Kadian
Describing Chief Minister Saini as a gentle person, Mr. Kadian claimed the BJP leader has been made a “scapegoat” by being handed over the crown when the State was passing through “unstable times”.
“President rule should be imposed in the situation that prevails. We stand in opposition to this trust vote. If the voting is held through secret ballot, at least five members from the treasury benches will oppose it,” the Congress MLA said.
His party colleague Rao Dan Singh asked what was the emergency that the government had to seek a trust vote. “Just two days ago, the Prime Minister heaped praise on then Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and then there was a change in leadership overnight,” he said.
“The reality is that people have made up their minds to oust the BJP Government. The BJP knows that to beat anti-incumbency and failures on various fronts, they can experiment with leadership change as they have done this in some other States as well,” he said.
On the possible snapping of ties with the JJP, the Congress member said, “People are wise enough and know that behind the scenes they are still hand-in-glove. Whether you change the Chief Minister or break the alliance, the truth is that you have lost people’s trust.” Mr. Dan Singh claimed the government would get to know the reality if the voting is held through a secret ballot.
Participating in the discussion, Independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala, a Minister in the Saini Cabinet, said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become “jannayak” [mass leader]. The situation in the Congress is such that their leaders are disillusioned and are leaving the party. their leaders do not want to contest,” he said.
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Saini praised Khattar
The BJP named Nayab Singh Saini as Haryana’s new Chief Minister on March 12, hours after the surprise resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the post along with his Cabinet Ministers. The BJP appears to be comfortably placed in Haryana even without the JJP support.
Mr. Saini said that the BJP-led government in the State has the support of a total of 48 MLAs adding that the Speaker has been urged to conduct the floor test on March 13.
“I want to thank PM Modi, party president J.P. Nadda, Union HM Amit Shah, and other senior leaders of the party for giving me this responsibility. We will work for the development of the State. We have asked the Speaker to conduct the floor test tomorrow at around 11 a.m., in the Vidhan Sabha. We have informed the Governor about the support of 48 MLAs,” Chief Minister Saini said.
Praising former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said, ”Our newly-formed Cabinet wants to thank former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. He has given Haryana a new direction and has given the best example of good governance. He did development work in the State without any discrimination.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all 10 parliamentary seats while JJP, which had contested the elections in alliance with AAP, could not put up a fight on 7 seats it contested.
(With agency inputs)
