The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab won the trust vote in the assembly on Monday, even as the Congress members staged a walkout. "Operation Lotus defeated in Punjab," said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann after the Punjab Assembly "unanimously" passed the motion moved by him.
The assembly had taken up discussion on the motion, with the AAP MLAs hitting out at the BJP over "Operation Lotus" - an alleged attempt to topple the six-month-old government. The party had earlier claimed that at least 10 of its MLAs were approached by the BJP with an offer of Rs 25 crore to each of them in a bid to topple the Mann government under the alleged operation.
After a discussion on the trust vote, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan put it to vote. He asked MLAs to raise hands who were in support, and then asked those who were against the motion of confidence.
The members of the Congress party walked out as soon as the discussion began, They were demanding that the Speaker should give them time to speak and raise issues during the Zero Hour.
91 AAP MLAs supported the motion while one of the three SAD MLAs who was present in the House and a lone BSP MLA did not oppose the motion. "So, 93 MLAs have supported the motion and none is against it. Thus, the motion is unanimously passed," the Speaker said.
In the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the AAP has 92 members (including the Speaker), Congress 18, SAD 3, BJP 2, BSP 1 while 1 is an Independent.
The BJP members have been boycotting the session as they accuse the AAP government of violating the Constitution by bringing the confidence motion in the assembly. The Congress had also questioned the AAP's government's move of bringing the confidence motion while stating that no rule in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha has allowed the ruling party to bring such a motion.
The session was convened after the governor on Sunday gave his nod to summon the House on September 27 after days of contention between the Raj Bhavan and AAP government over holding a session of the Assembly.
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