New Delhi, Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Wednesday appreciated the party’s alliance partner in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, for not participating in the voting on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 in the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking to media outside Parliament, Chidambaram said, “We got 105 votes and it is wonderful, 105 is a good number.”
The contentious CAB was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, two days after it got the nod from the Lok Sabha. As many as 125 members voted in favour of the Bill and 105 voted against it.
Earlier in the day, Home Minister Amit Shah had tabled the Bill in the House. The Bill seeks to give citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
When asked about the party’s alliance partner in Maharashtra, which is a part of the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi,’ the Congress leader said, “We are certainly happy that Shiv Sena did not vote for the Bill.” Pressed further, he said, “They did not vote as they walked out.”
The Shiv Sena forged an alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra to form a government in the state, where the President’s rule was imposed on November 12.
On the other hand, senior NCP leader Praful Patel when questioned about party’s two MPs — Majeed Memon and Vandana Chavan — remaining absent from the House on the crucial day, he said, “One of them is in poor health and the other has a marriage in her family. So they could not turn up.”
