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March 30, 1998

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Swamy says absence during trust vote was not 'deliberate'

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy today clarified that his absence from the Lok Sabha during voting on the confidence motion moved by the Vajpayee government, was not "deliberate".

In a statement in Madras, he said he had misunderstood that after the Telugu Desam Party's open support for the government, only a voice vote would be taken as in the case of the Speaker's election.

He said he was pained that he was listed as "absent" during voting in the Lok Sabha since he had assured All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader J Jayalalitha that he would definitely cast his vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government despite BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan's provocative statement that they did not care for his vote.

The prime minister had assured him that Mahajan would, on record, clarify his statement since every vote was valuable. This was not done, he added.

Dr Swamy said he had to catch the Indian Airlines flight to Madras that left at 1945 hours on Saturday for certain important work, and hence had to leave the Lok Sabha at 1800 hours.

UNI

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