BJP urges Singh to quickly seek vote of confidence

New Delhi: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday asked the Congress-led government to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha after Leftist parties withdrew support over the nuclear deal with the US.

"The government is in the minority now. It is now incumbent on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

"We demand an emergency session of parliament. It should be held before August 11, the date announced by the government," he said after a meeting of BJP leaders at L.K. Advani's residence last evening.

Prasad said it was a given that whenever an ally pulled out of a coalition, the government was expected to prove its majority. "The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government is taking a month's time and we think it is not right. It should happen immediately."

Prasad said the prime minister had lost the political and moral legitimacy to go ahead with the nuclear deal or a major international agreement after losing the support of the 61 Left MPs.

Doomed to failure

Earlier in the day, BJP president Rajnath Singh called the Left-UPA partnership an "unholy alliance".

"It was an unholy alliance between the Congress and the Left parties and it had to break up," Singh said.

Prasad said the government had messed up the country's affairs on all fronts. "Its failure to control skyrocketing prices has caused intense agony to the common man. Its anti-farmer polices have forced large numbers of farmers to commit suicide," he said.

"The breakdown (of law and order) in Jammu and Kashmir in the last few days exemplifies how it has failed miserably to provide the governance and stability that the country needs."

The Left parties withdrew support over irreconcilable differences over the nuclear deal.