It was a technical fault that is bound to embarrass the Lok Sabha secretariat. But, when the electronic voting machines (EVMs) of the House didn’t work today during the cut motions, the Lok Sabha yet again saw the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voting together against the government. This time, against the government’s Budget.
It also helped the government in another way: The Opposition leaders initially forced the House to take up their respective cut motions separately for voting. But as the machines didn’t work, they had to accept the government’s proposal of clubbing all cut motions and went for single-phase voting.
Lok Sabha sources told Business Standard that everyday before the House sits, the voting machine is tested by the Lok Sabha officers and even on Wednesday morning, it was found to be in working condition.
As various leaders from several political parties had moved cut motions against the demands for grants, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal proposed to club all motions but the idea was rejected by both the BJP and Left parties as they wanted to maintain their own political identity during the voting.
But, the technical fault added a new twist to the dramatic scene. While the first cut motion sponsored by BJP’s Sushma Swaraj sailed smoothly through the machine, glitches stalled voting of the second cut motion (moved by Gurudas Dasgupta).