Under BJP pressure, the SAD(B) will issue a whip to its MPs asking them to vote against the government, say sources.Earlier, SAD(B) leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said his party would not issue any whip to the eight party MPs to make them vote against the UPA Government in the ensuing session of the Lok Sabha.However, a jittery BJP leadership, worried that some SAD MPs may vote in favour of the Government in order to save the Sikh Prime Minister, is learnt to have reached out to the Akali leadership and asked it to ensure that all the MPs voted against the Government.A senior BJP leader is also learnt to have spoken to Badal in this regard. SAD(B) secretary general and leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa confirmed that a whip was being issued.SAD(B) leaders have admitted to being under pressure to support Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he is a Sikh. In fact, party leaders have even admitted to there being a “division within the party” on the issue.Sikh organisations and groups have also asked the party to support Manmohan in line with its commitment to panthic causes. The party is one of the few NDA constituents that have come out in support of the nuclear deal. But, at a meeting on July 15, the core committee of the party decided to toe the NDA line on the issue of vote against the UPA Government.It is also learnt that the party leadership has decided against asking Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal to put in his papers from the post in the event of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee deciding to quit before the trust vote.“Where is the need to ask the Deputy Speaker to resign? He will continue in his post,” said Dhindsa.Atwal was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Phillaur (reserved) constituency on a SAD(B) ticket.
