No-confidence motion against Orissa govt defeated

The no-confidence motion against the J B Patnaik government was on Saturday defeated in the Orissa assembly by 81-53 votes.

The motion against the two-and-a-half-year-old Congress government was brought by the opposition Janata Dal, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. It was put to vote after an 18-hour debate.

The JD and the BJP members made a scathing attack against the Congress government, levelling serious corruption charges and demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry.

Patnaik, however, refuted all the allegations levelled against his government, stating them as "untrue and baseless".

UNI