NEW DELHI, March 23: Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee’s bid to push through a controversial anti-terror law received a shot in the arm on Saturday when five neutral MPs joined his coalition.

The five independent lawmakers formed the Indian Federal Democratic Party and said they were joining Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) multi-party administration in New Delhi, three days before Tuesday’s crucial legislative vote.

The government on Thursday failed to turn the controversial anti-terrorism bill into law when it was defeated by a determined opposition in bitterly-fought balloting in parliament’s upper house, where Vajpayee’s NDA partners are in minority.

Saturday’s political bonanza boosted the morale of the NDA, which is equally determined to push through the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO).

Vajpayee’s NDA now has 418 MPs, more than the required majority 392 votes needed to turn POTO into law in Tuesday’s rare joint session of parliament, the third since 1947.

“Yes the government has a comfortable majority,” a visibly-pleased Vajpayee said in reply to questions on Saturday.

The opposition parties will be able to muster a total of 365 members to vote against the draft law during the make-or-break voting in the 783-member joint session of parliament, observers said.

P.C. Thomas, leader of the new five-MP party, said he too was confident of a victory for the NDA on Tuesday.

“The NDA will stand together and make efforts to foster secularism and find a solution to the communal problem,” he said, without mentioning the decade’s bloodiest anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat, which last month left around 700 people dead.

Trinamool Congress, a regional ally of the NDA, however sprang a nasty surprise on Friday and said its nine MPs will not attend the joint session.

“We have not participated in the debate on the issue in the lower house and there is no question of us changing our stand on POTO. Therefore, we will not attend the joint session,” party’s parliamentary leader Sudip Bandopadhaya warned.

The Trinamool, which hails from the Marxist-ruled West Bengal, fears that a similar law being forged by the regional communists could be used to strangle political dissent in the coastal province.

“We know their fears and we will try to reason with them,” Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a spokesman for the premier’s BJP, said.

The POTO was endorsed by the lower house despite the Trinamool’s rejection of the bill, which the Congress party says is draconian and could be used against Muslims.

BJP President Jana Krishnamurty rejected the opposition’s arguments and said the anti-terror bill was now as good as law. He insisted the Trinamool, as well as held Kashmir’s ruling National Conference MPs, would support the NDA in the voting.

“We want the Congress should allow its MPs to use their conscience while deciding the fate of the bill,” Krishnamurty said, adding the opposition should assist the government in combating terrorism.

POTO allows the detention of a suspect for up to 90 days without trial, provides for capital punishment if the action of a terrorist leads to a death and a life sentence to anyone convicted of conspiring in any act defined as terrorism.

The ordinance also permits the police to seize cash from suspects and gives police huge powers to forfeit the property of those convicted under the law.—AFP