The Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, began the proceedings allowing smaller parties two minutes each to express their views.

The clock showed 6.40 pm. Akbaruddin Owaisi from Majlis-e-ittehadul Musilmeen was the first speaker. He supported the nuclear deal and attacked the BJP. The saffron party members were on their legs immediately.
Amidst the din, Chatterjee asked the next speaker Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) to speak. She began and gave up almost immediately because of the noise. Maneka Gandhi and Ramvilas Paswan decided to just lay their statement on the floor of the House. However, National Conference’s Omar Abdulla had enough lung power to drown the opposition bench.

At 7.25 pm, the Speaker put the motion in a voice vote. After vociferous “Ayes” and “Noes” from either side, Chatterjee called for the division. Senior leaders and party whips were giving last minute suggestion to their MPs on the voting. Five minutes later Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary stood up to explain the rules. Immediately silence fell over the House. Four ailing members including former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and yesteryear’s hero Dharmendra (BJP) were allowed to vote from the lobby.

The BJP made one last attempt to disrupt the House. They demanded voting in the absence of the Prime Minister as Manmohan Singh is not a Lok Sabha member. “It’s a frivolous point,” ruled Chatterjee.

Voting began and ended after ten seconds. The results were flashed on the electronic display – Ayes: 253; Noes: 232; Absent: 2 and total 487.

Loud expressions of relief and joyous laughter erupted from the UPA camp, which knew they were almost there. The second part – collecting the manual voting slips and counting them – was yet to be completed. Party whips took extra care to ensure each vote is correctly recorded.

Speculations on cross votes were flying thick in the gallery. At 8.30 pm, the Speaker announced Ayes have 275 votes and Noes 256. The government has survived after two tense days and the gripping final hour.