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On a day of fluctuating fortunes, the anti-Government camp received a boost early in the day with Deve Gowda's JD(S) and Ajit Singh's RLD having three members each pledging to vote against the confidence motion on July 22 in the Lok Sabha.
However, Congress managers were able to persuade JMM to side with them and by the evening one MP each from BJP and JD(U) as well as two independents to announce their support to the Government.
Government's tally tonight stood at 266 pledged votes while 265 were ranged against it. Arithmetically the Government will need the support of 271 MPs but this figure could be reduced if some MPs from the opposition camp abstain as is widely speculated.
Among the nine undecided MPs, the two member National Conference is likely to do no harm to the UPA coalition.
The SP, which has lost four to five MPs to BSP, produced a BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at a press conference to announce his switching of loyalties. Earlier in the SP General Secretary Amar Singh claimed that seven to eight BSP MPs would support the motion.
Likewise, JD(U) MP Ram Swarup Prasad from Bihar said he would vote for the Government in defiance of his party whip.
His party colleague S S Koya from Lakshadweep is believed to be planning to abstain on grouds of ill-health.
A Bodo MP from Assam S K Biswamuthiary also announced his support to the government while a suspended BJP MP from Gujarat Sombhai Patel claimed he was under no obligation to follow the party whip.
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Noted : The parties once opposed the N-deal in the floor of the Parliament, now have assembled behind Congress-SP combine to support it .. shame ...shame. But they are not to see the passage of the confidence motion. We ask them to remember .. not the Parliament alone .. ultimately they are to answer outside to the people at large and the to the electorate why they agreed to tie up with a dreaded Imperialist superPower to get hold of a Non-aligned Nation in the name of N-deal .. !! The world hates the foreign policy of the US and they want to encompass India as their junior partner by this deal. The Congress/Govt. have concealed the implicatins of the deal to the people which have been designed in the Hyde Act and 123 Agreement. Now, the general people of the US hate Mr. Bush and Indians have started to think otherwise for Mr. Singh. The mute question : what is hidden in the deal ... why the ex-WorldBank-er Dr Monmohan is so eager to sell India to the US .. ? Why is he so eager to appease the Business-lobby of the US .. at the cost of India, the ex-friends, the Left .. the common man .. ? Why he finds it better to submit himself and his Govt. at the feet of Mr Bush even to endenger the existance of a to-some-extent-Secular Govt .. what is pricking him .. !!