New Delhi: As suspense mounted ahead of the July 22 trust vote in Parliament, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday met her party MPs asking them to put up a united face to ensure Government's victory in the trial of strength.
Sonia Gandhi began meeting Congress MPs in batches at her 10, Janpath residence as the party managers struggled hard to secure the magic figure of 271 required for the survival of the party-led coalition.
There was intense speculation that four of the five JMM MPs would support the government but the party chief Shibu Soren, who is being wooed by both the ruling UPA and opposition NDA, kept his cards close to his chest.
Soren is reportedly insisting on his induction into the Cabinet for extending his party's support. His party's parliamentary board is expected to take a decision on supporting the Government on Saturday.
However, JMM chief whip and Giridih MP Teklal Mahto said "we are with the UPA. All the party MPs would vote in favour of the government."
Mahto's statement assumes significance in wake of the fortnight-long suspense being maintained by the party over the issue.
In the numbers game, the ruling UPA still appeared to be short of a dozen MPs for simple majority in the Lok Sabha which has an effective strength of 541 and was heavily banking on small groups like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), National Conference and JD(S) but mixed signals were emanating from the Deve Gowda-led party.
Gowda is expected to make known his party's stand after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Big Picture
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There are 258 MPs FOR the Government as of now, 264 AGAINST and 19 are UNDECIDED. So the Government needs support of the 14 of the 19 undecided MPs to gain the trust vote.
If the numbers are not matched, the Government would need 6-8 MPs to abstain during the Vote of Confidence motion so that the halfway mark comes down to somewhere around 267.
The BJP's biggest worry at the moment seems to be the fact that three to four of its MPs may abstain.
Meanwhile, the small parties are also staying away from the BJP due to regional compulsions.
Countdown to the trust vote: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9
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