The vote was convincingly in favour of the government and it even benefited from cross-voting.

The total number of votes cast were 531 though the strength of the House is 541. The government needed 269 to reach a simple majority but it received 275, with 256 voting against the motion. The government benefited from 10 opposition abstentions and at least four MPs cross-voting. Of the abstentions, two deliberately abstained and the other eight stayed away from the House.

So, the government was saved but it was the BJP that got to take the high road. The confusion began in the early evening when BJP MP Ashok Argal shocked the House by walking into the well with a bag stuffed with currency notes that he claimed was given by an SP leader in return for his support in the trust vote.

He claimed that horse-trading had taken place and heavy cash was used to "purchase" MPs for the trial of strength.

Looking at the press gallery, the BJP members alleged that an SP leader promised three of them Rs 3 crore each, of which Rs 1 crore was paid in advance.

The MPs were Argal, representing the Morena (scheduled caste) constituency, Faggan Singh Kulaste, representing the Mandla (scheduled tribe) constituency (both in Madhya Pradesh) and Mahaveer Bhagora, representing Salumber (scheduled caste) in Rajasthan.

Later, Biju Janata Dal MP from Kendrapara, Archana Nayak, also claimed she had been offered bribe by the local Orissa Congress and Central leaders if she voted in the government's favour.

The House was immediately adjourned by Deputy Speaker Charanjeet Singh Atwal and a meeting of party leaders was called in the Speaker's chamber.

Outside the House, BJP leader LK Advani said the 3 MPs had come to his chamber in the afternoon and showed him the currency notes (in bundles of Rs 1,000 each) seeking his guidance on what to do. They said they were offered bribe and had taped the episode.

He said he told them that the Speaker would not allow them to raise the matter on the floor of the House but said he would try to get permission.

It was not, however, clear who precisely had offered to bribe them. BJP alleged that the Political Advisor to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Ahmad Patel, was the one who had financed the operation with SP connivance. Patel denied this to television channels.

Admitting that 10 Opposition MPs cross-voted, Advani said the UPA government had only scored a numerical victory and not a moral victory.

The episode eclipsed the debate earlier in the day that saw some sparkling speeches and some comic relief. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad artlessly explained that the nuclear agreement was about energy and prosperity as much as it was about protecting India's sovereignty and urged the Left, which was "undergoing an aberrant phase of siding with communal forces", to return to the secular fold.

He made it clear that even if the Left parties voted against the government, his Rashtriya Janata Dal would continue to hold them in high esteem.

In his diffident and politely worded speech, Rahul Gandhi sought to link nuclear energy with India's needs of power that could transform the lives of even the very poor and help them realise their ambitions. Gandhi's speech was interrupted many times especially by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is aligned against the UPA.

The speaker of the day was Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who explained key aspects of the nuclear agreement — especially the fact that the Hyde Act, the law passed in the US Congress governing export of nuclear technology, did not supersede the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, which has been a key objection of the four Left parties that withdrew support to the UPA last month.