Raman Singh govt wins no-confidence motion in Chhattisgarh Assembly after 14-hour debate ending at 2.10 am

Raipur: After a 14-hour debate, a no-trust motion moved by the Congress against the Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh was defeated by a voice vote in the Assembly in the early hours of Saturday. The debate started after noon on Friday and ended at 2.10 am on Saturday.Several issues, including a sex CD case, corruption and the law and order situation, were raised. Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh called the allegations levelled by the Opposition "direction-less and baseless".The Congress has made a failed attempt to mislead people, he said in his reply, which lasted over an hour. "In the last 15 years, the Congress has failed to play the role of constructive Opposition and has never come up with any alternative policy. The no-confidence motion was direction-less, unprincipled, unsubstantiated and unplanned," Singh said, adding that the Congress had failed to raise even one issue, fact or piece of evidence that could have cornered the BJP government.[caption id="attachment_3158690" align="alignleft" width="380"]

File image of Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh. PTI[/caption]The BJP is in power in 19 states, ruling almost 70 percent of the country, while the Congress' rule has shrunk to only 6 percent of the country's territory, Singh said. "The chargesheet presented by the Congress in the no-confidence motion clearly shows it has already accepted its defeat. In the Winter Session it had moved a no-confidence motion, which had 168 points. Now, the number has been reduced to 15. Like the Congress party, its chargesheet has also shrunk," he quipped.Singh gave a detailed account of his government's achievements and said it will retain power for the fourth time in a row in the upcoming Assembly polls.Earlier, Leader of Opposition TS Singhdeo said the state government had cheated people by not fulfilling its promises and by perpetrating scams. "The government has failed on all fronts. Farmers are facing a crisis, the youth have no jobs, women are unsafe and public representatives are being targeted," the Congress leader said.Referring to the cases against state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, Singhdeo said Baghel was being targeted by the government machinery with political motives.The government did not agree to the demand of an investigation into the alleged suicide of Rinku Khanuja, he said. Khanuja had been questioned by the CBI in the case of a sex CD, which allegedly featured a Chhattisgarh minister. He said the government had lost the people's trust as several sections of society, including shikshakarmis (teachers), nurses and families of police personnel, are agitating, he said.Despite the government's tall claims of development in the past 15 years, there has been no improvement for the poor, he said. The Leader of Opposition also hit out at the government over issues related to health, law and order and the agriculture sector.After the debate, the motion was put to a voice vote and was defeated. Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal then completed other businesses of the House and adjourned the Assembly sine die.This was the third no-trust motion faced by the Raman Singh government. The state, under BJP rule since 2003, will be going to the polls later this year.