Punjab Congress questions AAP govt's move to bring confidence motion; 'Nobody asked to prove'

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday questioned the AAP government's move to bring in a confidence motion in a special Vidhan Sabha session on September 22 when nobody asked it to prove majority in the House.

"Enacting a theatrical confidence show, you cannot win the confidence of people that you have already lost by your various acts of omission and commission," Warring said in a statement here.

"It is not the vote of confidence but the vote of low confidence," he said.

The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved the summoning of the special session of the state Assembly on September 22 to bring a confidence motion.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party had recently claimed that at least 10 of its MLAs were approached by the BJP with an offer of Rs 25 crore each in a bid to topple the six-month-old government.

Congress leader Warring said, "Normally, a government brings in a vote of confidence when its majority is questioned by the opposition that it has lost the confidence of the house." "But in this case the government is trying to bring in a vote of confidence in itself, apparently for the reason that it has completely lost confidence in itself," he said while taking a swipe at the AAP government.

"This is actually a vote of low confidence as the government has completely lost its own confidence and that of the people of Punjab owing to a series of setbacks like investigations into the liquor scams in Delhi and Punjab, the embarrassment caused by the false claims over the BMW investment and other multiple failures," he said.

Warring said given the numerical advantage the AAP government has in Vidhan Sabha, it is a foregone conclusion that it will win the trust vote.

"But how will you win the confidence of people that you have already lost and shattered," he asked the AAP leadership, adding, "Statistical numbers are really not enough to satisfy the expectations of the masses which you have badly belied and betrayed." Meanwhile, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa dubbed the summoning of the special session as "an act of sheer theatrics".

Bajwa said there was no need to indulge in wasteful public expenditure on such an event.

Bajwa said as per convention, it was the prerogative of the opposition parties to bring a no-confidence motion against the government of the day in the state legislature.

"Why does the Bhagwant Mann government feel threatened just after six months of coming into power. It shows either the Aam Aadmi Party MLAs are already disillusioned with the party and ready to switch sides or it is a sheer drama to cover up its non-performance under the garb of baseless allegations," said Bajwa.