NDA abstentions may be key to UPA victory

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New Delhi: In the Lok Sabha, there are 10 men whose loyalties can be bought. They are ready to break away from their parties and swing the outcome in favour of the ruling alliance and they are all from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Sources have told CNN-IBN that the men who may become part of Operation Rescue UPA on July 22, Tuesday, are:

One MP from Shiv Sena

Two MPs from JD(U) (Bihar)

One from BJD (Orissa)

And six MPs from BJP - two from Rajasthan, two from Karnataka and two from Gujarat

The Congress floor managers are targetting them, but the BJP is in denial mode.

BJP spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "This is a figment of people's imagination. Except for one MP who has defected, there has been no one else."

However, what is true is that the abstentions are politically possible. With barely a few months to go for their term, MPs have found it easier to invent respectable veneers and switch loyalties - some because they fear being denied a ticket, others because delimitation has squeezed them out of their current seats and yet others for reasons all too old and familiar: money and power.

The Congress knows that abstention is the surest way to win the trust vote. If 10 people don't vote or press the abstain button, the total of the house will come down to 530, bringing down the halfway mark to 265 - a figure the UPA insists it already has.

Right from the beginning there were doubts being expressed within the NDA on just how much to oppose the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. In the final analysis, it may be the abstentions within the oppositions' alliance which could turn out to be the saviour for the UPA Government.

(With inputs from Divya Iyer in New Delhi)

TRUST VOTE
	Monday began with the Speaker defying the CPM and deciding to chair the special session of Parliament.
	The Prime Minister moved the trust motion invoking Guru Gobind Singh and saying the trust vote could have been avoided and his Government could have focussed on handling inflation.
	Opposition Leader L K Advani made a speech bringing Hindutva, terrorism and inflation to the table. He said the Prime Minister has made the nuclear deal into a personal, ego issue.
	Foreign Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, also made a forceful speech on why the deal was important. he hit out at the Left for not focussing on real issues affecting the common man.
	Now, with 24 hours for the trust vote in the nuclear pot-boiler in Parliament, the UPA Government seems to have an edge in the numbers game - not because there is more support coming its way, it is just banking on abstentions in the NDA camp.
	CNN-IBN has learnt that the UPA is counting on 10 absentions, including five from the BJP. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has announced that she is against the nuclear deal and will abstain from voting.

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Sources have told CNN-IBN that the men who may become part of Operation Rescue UPA on July 22, Tuesday, are:

One MP from Shiv Sena

Two MPs from JD(U) (Bihar)

One from BJD (Orissa)

And six MPs from BJP - two from Rajasthan, two from Karnataka and two from Gujarat

The Congress floor managers are targetting them, but the BJP is in denial mode.

BJP spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "This is a figment of people's imagination. Except for one MP who has defected, there has been no one else."

(With inputs from Divya Iyer in New Delhi)

TRUST VOTE
	Monday began with the Speaker defying the CPM and deciding to chair the special session of Parliament.
	The Prime Minister moved the trust motion invoking Guru Gobind Singh and saying the trust vote could have been avoided and his Government could have focussed on handling inflation.
	Opposition Leader L K Advani made a speech bringing Hindutva, terrorism and inflation to the table. He said the Prime Minister has made the nuclear deal into a personal, ego issue.
	Foreign Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, also made a forceful speech on why the deal was important. he hit out at the Left for not focussing on real issues affecting the common man.
	Now, with 24 hours for the trust vote in the nuclear pot-boiler in Parliament, the UPA Government seems to have an edge in the numbers game - not because there is more support coming its way, it is just banking on abstentions in the NDA camp.
	CNN-IBN has learnt that the UPA is counting on 10 absentions, including five from the BJP. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has announced that she is against the nuclear deal and will abstain from voting.