India vote clears way for US nuclear deal

New Delhi: The government of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday won a crucial trust vote ensuring the survival of the ruling coalition and a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.

The ruling coalition won by 275 votes against 256 by the combined opposition amidst allegations of bribing and engineering defections.

With nine absentees, the government just required to poll 267 votes to sail through its first major crisis since it came to power in May 2004. Two lawmakers abstained from voting.

The confidence vote was sparked by the withdrawal of support by the government's communist allies to protest the nuclear deal, which they say will make India's security and energy policies dependent on the United States.

The government said it would now push ahead with the pact, which would give India access to foreign nuclear fuel and technology and end decades of isolation, as well as work towards reforms to further liberalise the trillion-dollar economy.

"This will send a message to the world at large that India's head and heart is sound, that India is prepared to take its rightful place in the comity of nations," Singh told reporters. "I have always said the deal was important and now we know it."

The voting took place after repeated adjournments following allegations by the opposition that the treasury benches were indulging in horse-trading.

While the Bahujan Samaj Party of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati alleged that four of its lawmakers had been kidnapped and confined, three lawmakers of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party displayed wads of currency notes, claiming it was paid to them as advance to vote for the government.

The furore was described as one of the lowest points in parliamentary history, and led to fresh demands for Singh to resign, and catcalls preventing him from even delivering his concluding remarks after the two-day debate.

The victory of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance will now ensure that the government can go ahead with the remaining steps for much debated Indo-US civil nuclear deal and undertake measures to further liberalise the economy now that the Left Front is out of the scene.