Vote ka saudaagar, Antonia Maino ;get her back to Luciana.

Since no one can be trusted in a trust vote, I foresee the following scenario: Somnath will ban some selected MPs from voting and allow the criminal MPs in jail to vote.

So, the problem Prakash Karat faces is NOT about convincing the Hon’ble MPs but to get his own comrade MP Somnath to selectively ban the votes of supporters of the nuke deal. The hypothesis is that Prakash Karat thinks that he has control over the comrade’s above-partisan-behaviour. Or, a separate deal has already been struck.

Here in lies the secret of keeping Somnath’s status in suspense. Will he or will he NOT quit Speakership/MP-ship? Karat may think that Basu has prevailed upon Somnath to sabotage the Lok Sabha vote in response to the usual halla which will be raised in the Lok Sabha proceedings.

How about getting some evidence for the rate per MP, Bardhan? Wave the evidence papers as the hall starts. I can’t wait to watch the Lok Sabha dumdum dawai being enacted on TV on 21 and 22 July.

Somnath claims that all parties made him Speaker. Now some parties say that they would vote the UPA Govt. out. How can Somnath assume that all parties still support him? Is it not fair and becoming of the high office of Speakership that he should seek vote of confidence for himself, first, before presiding over the Lok Sabha trust vote for the RajyaSabha MP, PM Hon’ble Manmohan?

So, does Somnath want to get voted out? The first motion may have to be to remove Somnath from the Speakership. Who will move it? Vote ka saudaagar?

Assuming that about 50 MPs (including the likes of Dayanidhi Maran of DMK who has indicated that he would abstain and some Congress party MPs who may like to vote against the nuke deal unless compensated) have to be bought at a price of Rs. 25 crores each and assuming that 39 MPs of Samajwadi party have already been bought, the total money which should have changed hands from the vote ka saudaagar should be: 89 X 25 crores = Rs. 2225 crores (which is equal to $494million at Rs. 45 to a dollar).

494 million dollars are peanuts in a kitty of billions kept by the sovereignty in foreign accounts according to one estimate. After all even participatory note money has to be kept in reserve for fights during the elections. One estimate is that it takes Rs.50 crores to fight for a Lok Sabha seat (evidence: recent MP election w here the Congress candidate lost despite the reported availability of dough).

The moral question is: is it fair to compensate opponents while not compensating the faithful chamcha-s?

How about buying up the entire 574 in the next election? It will cost only 574X25 crores = Rs. 14350 crores (a mere 3.18 b dollars; b for a biscuit).

I wonder why CBI is not going after the vote traders while pursuing the case of disproportionate wealth of Mayawati.

According to this rediff graphic, the support and opposition to the nuke deal  in Lok Sabha is as follows:

Supporters: 251
Against: 266
Undecided: 25 (breakdown as follows):