UPA wins trust vote; bribery allegations rock Lok Sabha

The Manmohan Singh government has won the trust vote. The Government got 275 votes in favour, 256 against and at least 10 abstentions.

It was capital chaos in the Parliament today as bribery charges took centrestage earlier in the day. As the trust vote debate was underway in the Lok Sabha at around 4 pm, 3 BJP MPs dramatically rushed to the well and placed bags carrying bundles of currency notes in front of the speaker. The MPs waved the wads of currency alleging it was the money offered to them by a Samajwadi Party leader to either vote for the confidence motion or abstain. The 3 MPs, who have levelled the allegations are Ashok Argal from Morena and Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla, Madhya Pradesh and Mahavir Bhagora from Salumber, Rajasthan. The speaker called an all party meet to discuss these allegations. But a final decision has not been taken so far.

There was considerable confusion in Parliament after a day of high drama. Post-results of electronic voting showed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government win the crucial confidence vote in the Lok Sabha.

However, apparently many members had either not voted properly or had waited to do manual voting that Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said would follow.

It was later announced that 54 votes were still to be counted, including four members who voted in the inner lobby. They included former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who could not be present in the chamber because of illness.

Chatterjee said the final results were yet to be declared, but MPs began crowding around a smiling Prime Minister and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to congratulate them.

(With inputs from IBN Live.com)