Govt to face trust vote in Lok Sabha on July 22

The four-year old UPA government will face its first trial of strength in the Lok Sabha on July 22.

The four-year old UPA government will face its first trial of strength in the Lok Sabha on July 22 with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asking coalition partners to ‘look ahead’ after Left’s exit while exuding confidence of securing majority.

A two-day special session of the Lok Sabha will be convened on July 21 to take up the vote of confidence and voting will take place the next day, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decided on Friday.

The CCPA meeting came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Pratibha Patil and expressed his Government’s readiness to seek a trust vote following Left parties with 59 members withdrawing support to it for going to the IAEA to take forward the Indo-US nuclear deal.

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“I have no doubt that we shall prove our majority,” Gandhi said in her opening remarks at a meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explained the developments related to the nuclear deal.

As the numbers game intensified, top UPA leaders on Friday held a strategy session here with Gandhi, expressing confidence of garnering numbers to prove their majority.

The meeting, which was attended by representatives of most of the UPA constituents, assessed the numbers that the ruling coalition has on its side after the departure of Left parties, whose dissociation was regretted by Gandhi.