Kejriwal govt wins vote of confidence

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s minority Aam Aadmi Party government  in Delhi is safe.

On Thursday, the fledgling government won a vote of confidence with the support of seven Congress legislators and two others, crossing the number hurdle for ruling the city for the next five years after voters in the December 4 elections ended the 15-year Congress reign.

At 6.35 pm, after a debate on the confidence motion for over four hours, 37 House members voted in favour and 28 voted against the motion, soon after Kejriwal, the youngest chief minister of Delhi ever, made an  impassioned appeal to the newly elected legislators to support the government in taking the first step towards uprooting corruption from politics.

 On winning the trust vote, Kejriwal told reporters: "It is a victory for truth and honesty. It is a victory for the people of Delhi." The 28 members of the AAP, seven members from the Congress, one legislator of the Janata Dal-United and an independent stood up in the Assembly as part of voting in favour of the confidence motion.

The 31 BJP legislators and one Shiromani Akali Dal legislator voted against the motion, which was earlier moved by Education Minister Manish Sisodia.

Pro tem speaker Mateen Ahmad, a Congress legislator, did not vote on the confidence motion in which 69 members participated.

Earlier, in his maiden speech in the House, the transparency activist-turned-chief minister, who spoke in Hindi, reiterated his resolve to end corruption and said: “Any person who wants a corruption-free system is a common man for us.”

Kejriwal, 45, vowed to take strict action against the corrupt – whether linked to the previous Congress government, the BJP ruled civic agencies or his government – and said: “The House needs to introspect why the common man was forced to take a plunge into politics. Today the question is who (among the MLAs) are standing with the common man to fight corruption and who all would support our 17-point agenda,” said Kejriwal, who and his 27 party legislators were not wearing their white Gandhi caps with slogans.
 
The AAP government will have another test on Friday when the House elects its new speaker. AAP nominee M S Dhir is pitted against BJP legislator Jagdish Mukhi in a contest which is expected to throw up more surprises than the confidence motion.