Should I, shouldn’t I? Prez faces acid test on Wednesday

Constitutional experts say Patil has two options before her — either to ask the government to prove its majority or go by the letter of support given by Samajwadi Party and others in 2004, a precedent set up by President K R Narayanan.

“The President should ask the government to prove its majority in the floor of the House since there are news emerging that some Samajwadi Party MPs are against the deal and would vote against the deal even if the party issues a whip. In light of this, the President is left with no option but to ask the government to prove its majority,” Raju Ramachandran, senior advocate said.

However, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan said there was “no point in the Constitution which talks about confidence motion for a functioning government” and hence Patil was not required to ask the government to prove its majority.

“Confidence motion is moved in the Parliament in case of newly formed government. It is for the opposition to do so and not the President,” he said.

Bhushan’s view is also supported by senior advocate KTS Tulsi who says that the government does not even need a formal letter of support from the Samajwadi Party at the moment.

“It is wrong to assume that the government is in minority. The government also does not require any formal letter of support from the SP since no new government is being formed,” he said.

Earlier, after the 1998 general elections, the then President Narayanan faced a unique situation with Atal Bihari Vajpayee staking claim to form the government since the BJP had emerged as the single largest party leading the pre-election coalition — the NDA — even though he did not have a majority.

Narayanan had then asked Vajpayee to furnish letters of support to demonstrate NDA’s ability to secure a majority.

Vajpayee who was able to meet the demand was then appointed the Prime Minister (March 15, 1998) on the condition that the vote of confidence should be secured in 10 days.

Prez to receive five letters from Left on Wednesday

New Delhi, July 8:

Four Left parties will hand over separate letters to President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday announcing their withdrawal of support to the UPA Government besides sending a joint letter demanding a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.

The President has given audience to the leaders of the four Left parties — CPM, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc – at 1200 hours on Wednesday, after they requested an appointment with her to provide the letters withdrawing support to the UPA.

“The letters will read ‘this is to inform you that our party is withdrawing support to the UPA Government and a list of the MPs belonging to our party has been enclosed'”, a senior Left party leader said.

The leader said they have to give separate letters of withdrawal of support as they had sent separate intimations pronouncing support to the UPA in 2004 when the Manmohan Singh Government was formed.

“We will give a fifth letter to the President requesting her to ask the Prime Minister to seek a vote of confidence on the floor of the House,” he said.

The Left parties, earlier in the day, decided to withdraw support to the Government on the nuclear deal issue and sought President’s permission to meet her on Wednesday.

Sources said the Left parties had approached the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday itself seeking appointment with Patil, soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the Government would go to the IAEA for the Safeguards Agreement on the Indo-US nuclear deal.