Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini moves confidence motion in Assembly

Chandigarh: A day after taking oath of office, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Wednesday moved a motion to seek a vote of confidence in the assembly. The Speaker fixed two hours for discussing the motion.

Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) MLAs Devender Singh Babli, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ram Niwas and Jogi Ram Sihag left the House when the issue of trust vote was taken up. Their party has issued a whip, asking its 10 legislators to remain absent from the Assembly during voting on the confidence motion.

Former state home minister Anil Vij was present in the House.

Before the chief minister moved the motion, Congress MLAs sought to know from Speaker Gian Chand Gupta about the urgency of convening the Assembly session.

"There was no emergency," senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said and claimed that proper time was not given to the MLAs.

Party MLA B B Batra asked, "What was the urgency of convening the session?"

Hooda asked the Speaker to adjourn the session for at least one hour so that the legislators could reach the assembly. To this, the Speaker said it was the duty of the members to reach the House on time.

Gupta, however, said, "Let the discussion take place and in the meantime, the members can reach the House."

Participating in the discussion, Congress MLA Raghuvir Singh Kadian opposed the trust vote and took on the state government over the issues of farmers' plight, law and order, unemployment, alleged liquor scam and cooperative scam.

"So many scams -- liquor scam, registry scam, cooperative scam -- took place. Corruption is rampant, law and order has collapsed and unemployment is at its peak. Does the government not have any responsibility towards its citizens?" he asked.

Describing Chief Minister Saini as a gentle person, Kadian claimed the BJP leader has been made a "scapegoat" by being handed over the crown when the state was passing through "unstable times".

"President rule should be imposed in the situation that prevails. We stand in opposition to this trust vote. If the voting is held through secret ballot, at least five members from the treasury benches will oppose it," the Congress MLA said.

His party colleague Rao Dan Singh asked what was the emergency that the government had to seek a trust vote. "Just two days ago, the Prime Minister heaped praise on then chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and then there was a change in leadership overnight," he said.

"The reality is that people have made up their minds to oust the BJP government. The BJP knows that to beat anti-incumbency and failures on various fronts, they can experiment with leadership change as they have done this in some other states as well," he said.

On the possible snapping of ties with the JJP, the Congress member said, "People are wise enough and know that behind the scenes they are still hand-in-glove. Whether you change the chief minister or break the alliance, the truth is that you have lost people's trust."

Dan Singh claimed the government would get to know the reality if the voting is held through a secret ballot.

Participating in the discussion, Independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala, a minister in the Saini Cabinet, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become "Jannayak" (mass leader). The situation in the Congress is such that their leaders are disillusioned and are leaving the party. their leaders do not want to contest," he said.

In the 90-member state assembly, the BJP has 41 members, and it also enjoys the support of six of the seven independents as well as of lone Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda. The JJP has 10 MLAs in the House. The main opposition Congress has 30 MLAs while the Indian National Lok Dal has one.

The BJP named Nayab Singh Saini as Haryana's new chief minister on Tuesday, hours after the surprise resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the post along with his cabinet ministers.

After taking oath in the evening, Saini said they had presented a letter of support of 48 MLAs to the governor and asked him to convene an assembly session on Wednesday for the BJP government to prove its majority in the House.

The floor-test suggestion was made amid signs that the BJP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) alliance in the state might have ended, though there has been no formal announcement yet.

The BJP appears to be comfortably placed in Haryana even without the JJP's support.