Chandigarh, Oct 28 (IANS) Amid heated exchanges with opposition benches, the four-day-old Congress government in Haryana, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Wednesday won the vote of confidence in the state assembly.
The Congress, which has 40 legislators of its own, won the vote of confidence with 47 votes in favour, amid protests from the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha, who was elected earlier in the day, announced that the motion of vote of confidence was carried in the house. The motion was moved by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda himself.

Congress legislators, along with seven Independent legislators and the lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator, stood up in the house to show their strength.

Chautala questioned the hurry the Hooda government showed in rushing with the trust vote without giving adequate time to debate the matter. He termed the Hooda government as a “minority government”.

The Congress benches challenged the opposition to take a head-count of the legislators supporting the motion.

The INLD has 31 legislators in the house.

Though the simple majority figure required in the assembly was 46 legislators in the 90-member house, the Congress was required to show only 42 legislators after the Haryana Janhit Congress, with its six legislators, decided to ‘abstain’ from the trust vote.

The HJC members’ decision reduced the effective assembly strength for the vote down to 83 legislators present instead of 89, excluding the speaker, who being the presiding officer usually does not cast his vote.

The total seats in the assembly are 90 but Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Om Prakash Chautala was elected from two seats but took oath only from one.