New Delhi - India's parliament is to convene in a special
session from July 21 as the ruling coalition aims to prove it
continues to hold a majority after left-wing parties withdrew their
support in protest of a civilian nuclear deal with the United States,
news reports said Friday.
India's Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs made the
decision at a meeting in New Delhi, the PTI news agency reported,
quoting political sources.
The special session is to convene July 21 and a vote on a
confidence motion on the coalition was expected the next day, the
report said.
A spokesman for the prime minister's office said, however, that a
final decision on the special session would be taken later Friday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Pratibha Patil
Thursday to inform her that the Congress Party-led United Progressive
Alliance was seeking the vote and wanted it to occur as soon as
possible.
A day earlier, four left-wing parties with 59 members in
parliament broke their ties with the ruling coalition and demanded a
confidence vote, saying the coalition was reduced to a minority
government.
The communists, who described the nuclear deal as a 'sell-out' of
India's strategic sovereignty, decided to quit the coalition after
Singh met US President George W Bush on the sidelines of the Group of
Eight summit of major world economies in Japan and discussed progress
on the deal.
The India-US nuclear agreement would allow the United States to
trade fissile materials and technology with India, ending a
three-decade ban. India would in return open its civilian reactors to
international inspections.
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