The Biblical 13 proved unlucky for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee once again on Saturday as he lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha by the narrowest margin of one vote which came after 13 months of his second innings in the top slot.Earlier, Vajpayee headed a coalition government in May 1996 just for 13 days at the end of which he resigned on the floor of the House without waiting for the vote to be taken in the confidence motion moved by him.

Vajpayee resigned on that occasion as he knew the numbers did not favour him. But this time around, hopes were kept alive till the last moment as political events leading to the vote saw fortunes swinging from the BJP-led coalition to the Opposition.

Speaker's action hailed in Gomang controversy

Speaker GMC Balayogi's decision to leave it to the conscience of Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gomango whether to vote or not in a neck-to-neck race on vote of confidence moved by Vajpayee government hasbeen hailed as `right' by constitutional experts. Former secretary general of Lok Sabha Subhas Kashyap said that the precedent was that a member after becoming the chief minister of a state should not participate in the proceedings of Parliament.

However, as the Speaker left it to the conscience of Gomango whether to vote or not, the casting of his vote was valid, he added. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said since Gomango continued to be a member of the Lok Sabha, he could not be debarred from voting. "The Speaker did the right thing by appealing to his conscience".

Senior advocate Arun Jaitley said "in the interest of democracy, the Speaker did the right thing and left it to Gomango himself. Or else in such a situation, it would have been a tie and resulted in the technical exercise of casting of vote by the Speaker himself".

Vajpayee govt: Third to be voted out

The loss of trust vote by the Vajpayee government was the third such occasion on the floor of the Lok Sabha since Independence. TheJanata Dal government headed by VP Singh was the first to be voted out when it lost a confidence vote on November 7, 1990, with 356 votes against and 152 for it. HD Deve Gowda's rainbow coalition was the second to be voted out on April 11, 1997, with 338 members voting against it and 190 for it. Earlier, the central governments had either won trustvotes or sensing defeat or resigned.