Singh staves off vote

The Indian Government has managed to prevent a no-confidence vote over price rises and the IPL cricket scandal amid suggestions that a deal was done with an opposition leader.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ministers feared the United Progressive Alliance Government could fall if it failed to prove its small majority in the Lok Sabha Parliament.

The Government has been drawn into the cricket corruption scandal after Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, was suspended and charged with 22 counts of corruption.

He is regarded as a protege of a key figure in the coalition, Sharad Pawar. As strikes over price rises paralysed several cities, the coalition's majority of two rose by 21 when one of India's most controversial politicians pledged her support.

Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents poor "untouchables", said she opposed the price rises but was backing the Government to stop "communal forces" - the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party - coming to power.