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
Elections '98
Tell us what you think of this report
|