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NEW DELHI: India's ruling coalition has survived a confidence vote in parliament, giving a few months' reprieve to Manmohan Singh’s government.
The vote comes amid allegations that both the ruling party and the opposition courted jailed lawmakers and known criminal elements to vote in their favour.
For two days the country's media as well as foreign networks parked themselves outside the Indian Parliament to watch an exhaustive debate and confidence vote on the continuation of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government.
The bane of the debate was the civilian nuclear deal signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the United States in 2005.
The debate took an ugly turn when lawmakers hurled accusations of buying and selling votes.
LK Advani, Senior Leader, Bharatiya Janata Party, said: "Today, three of my BJP lawmakers came and talked to me and said how they were offered Rs 3 crores each (S$700,000) for their abstention from parliament.
"They were given Rs 1 crore (S$232,000) as an offer and were promised the remaining sum after they abstained from Parliament."
The shocking sight of four jailed lawmakers being escorted to Parliament for the debate and being wooed by both the ruling and opposition parties for their votes had the media and the public squirming.
Atiq Ahmed is facing trial in a number of criminal cases. Shahbuddin is a member of parliament convicted of kidnap and murder, and Pappu Yadav has also been convicted of murder.
They are not the only known criminal elements in Parliament. According to one survey, 120 members face criminal cases - that is more than a fifth of the Parliamentary seats.
Among the major parties, the BJP has 29 MPs with criminal records and the Congress party has 24.
The convicted lawmakers have been able to retain their Parliamentary seats because the Supreme Court saves them from being disqualified till each of their appeals is "disposed of by the court".
Hours before the vote was to take place, one prominent politician claimed that five lawmakers had been illegally detained by a party bigwig to coerce them to cast votes in the party's favour.
Amar Singh, General Secretary, Samajwadi Party, said: "We have received information that throughout the night there was patrolling of miscreants, led by liquor lobby and builder lobby belonging to a mafia gang of Uttar Pradesh, aided and abetted by senior IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officers. They kidnapped MPs and they are now being kept in Uttar Pradesh Bhawan (UP State House)."
Some lawmakers of the opposition BJP also managed to bring in wads of cash to the house to show how they were offered money to switch loyalties. - CNA/vm
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