Display of money in House shattered PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was 'shattered' when the three BJP lawmakers flashed wads of notes in Parliament during the confidence motion claiming that the money had been given to them to vote for the government.

Cash for votes: BJP MPs sing a different tune

He felt that the opposition enacted that incident in Parliament as it knew from the beginning that they were going to lose in the trust vote badly, highly-placed sources said in New Delhi on about the developments on July 22.

The BJP MPs -- Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora -- had created a flutter in the House just before the voting as they rushed into the Well with a bag containing Rs one crore.

The Opposition MPs had alleged that they were paid the amount as advance and were promised Rs two crore more to vote for the confidence motion.

The prime minister knew the Government had the numbers to win the trust vote and when the opposition MPs brandished the purported bribe money in Parliament, he was 'shattered', sources said.

Dr Singh's confidence about the victory was clear when he flashed the 'V' sign before entering Parliament on the first day of the debate on the confidence motion, they said.

The government got 275 votes in the 543-member Lok Sabha while the opposition managed only 256.

On the speculation about a Cabinet expansion, the sources sought to discount such a possibility in the near future. The prime minister is not concentrating on Cabinet expansion much as he is more preoccupied with the situation in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land issue, they said.