Lucknow, April 28: The UPA government has defeated the cut motion by a massive margin on Tuesday as 246 MPs voted against the cut motion and 162 voted in favour with SP and RJD MPs abstaining from voting.
The opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Left parties moved cut motions in the Lok Sabha against the Budget proposals to hike prices of fuels and fertilisers but the treasury was confident of passing the test of strength rather easily.
Beginning the debate, the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar informed about the letter sent to her by CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta to move a cut motion on various budgetary demands.
The cut motions were planned even as 13 opposition parties led by the Left Front also began a 12-hour nationwide strike to protest what they termed the government’s inability to check prices, disrupting life in West Bengal, Kerala, Orissa, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and parts of Uttar Pradesh.
As soon as the Lok Sabha reconvened, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav declared he would vote in favour of the cut motion, soon after both RJD an SP MPs walked along with Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh.
The Lok Sabha had adjourned earlier as opposition leaders protested against rising prices. Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj also lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for making a statement outside the house on a JPC probe on the phone tapping and IPL.
50 BJP MPs had tabled a breach of privilege notice in Lok Sabha against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for announcing outside Parliament his decision to reject setting up of a joint parliamentary committee on the issue of alleged phone tapping.
The prime minister had on Monday night told reporters on the sidelines of the defence investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan that the phone tapping and IPL controversy were not fit cases to constitute a joint parliamentary committee (JPC).
—Agencies