Glitches in system mark voting on motion against FDI in RS

Even after voting was conducted twice, the final figure was corrected after scrutiny by officials of the Rajya Sabha secretariat late at night.

While 123 members voted against the motion, 102 members voted in its favour, with 19 members not voting.

"After the scrutiny of records of the Division held on the Motion under Rule 168 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Rajya Sabha, regarding FDI in multi- brand retail sector on December 7, 2012, 225 Members voted and 19 did not vote. While 102 Members voted for the Motion, 123 voted against it. Thus the Motion was not carried," a Rajya Sabha secretariat statement said.

Voting on the motion had to be conducted twice with the electronic display system recording 123 votes against the motion and 109 in its favour after the second voting. The system had in the first voting recorded 116 against the motion and 95 in favour.

Incidentally, the first voting took place even without Chairman Hamid Ansari calling for the division of votes, a fact pointed out by BJP member and former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla, who could not cast her vote through the system on both occasions due to some snag.

As soon as the discussion was over, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath sought permission of the Chair to allow two ailing members of the ruling combine Janardan Waghmare (NCP) and Janardan Reddy (Cong) to cast their vote in the lobby, which was accepted.