Parliament adjourned over Cash-for-Vote

The Cash-for-Vote controversy unleashed a ruckus in Parliament for the second consecutive day with the Opposition gunning for the Prime Minister, leading to adjournment of both houses.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said that he was not aware that cash exchanged hands in 2008 to help him win a crucial trust vote as alleged by a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable, the House witnessed uproar as expected.

While the lower house (Lok Sabha) was adjourned till 12-15 pm, the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) was adjourned till 2.30 pm.

In Lok Sabha, the leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj (BJP) demanded the PM to come to the House and make his position clear, while in Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley made the same demand and said the PM must quit.

The BJP has demanded resignation of the PM over the issue which came to haunt the government after a WikiLeaks cable caught US diplomatic exchange on how purportedly cash was paid to buy lawmakers in July 2008 to save the government when the communists pulled out over the civil nuclear deal with USA.

PM during the day said at the India Today summit that he was neither aware nor had he authorised his colleagues to buy any votes from lawmakers ahead of the 2008 confidence vote.

The WikiLeaks cable sparked a ruckus in the parliament since Thursday with the Opposition demanding the PM?s resignation and the Congress party claiming that the allegations were not true.