The Congress-led opposition's decision on Thursday to table a no-confidence motion against the government is doomed to failure as the arithmetic in the Lok Sabha clearly favours the National Democratic Alliance.

The NDA has well over half the seats in the House of 543.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party has 181 seats; the Telegu Desam Party 28; the Shiv Sena 15; the Bahujan Samaj Party 13; the Trinamool Congress 8, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 12; the Samata Party 12; the All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 11, the Biju Janata Dal 10, the Janata Dal-United six; the Indian National Lok Dal and Pattali Makkal Katchi five each; the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam four; the Loktantrik Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal two each; and the Haryana Vikas Congress, Manipur State Congress and Sikkim Democratic Front one each.

On the other hand the Congress has 112 members in the House; the Communist Party of India-Marxist 33; the Samajwadi Party 27; the CPI and the Revolutionary Socialist Party three each; the Nationalist Congress Party eight; others seven; the Rashtriya Janata Dal four; the Muslim League and Janata Dal-Secular two each; and the Kerala Congress and CPI (Marxist-Leninist) one each. This brings the tally to 203.

The NDA will be comfortably placed even if the TDP, which supports the government from outside, abstains.

BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the motion would enable the government to underline its achievements and expose the 'opposition bluff'.

However, Malhotra was uncomfortable over the prospect of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee having to reply to the motion, something that the opposition would regard as a victory.

Congress leaders, including Ambika Soni and Abhishek Singhvi, underscored as much by saying that the motion was not about numbers; it was about the moral responsibility of the government.

Significantly, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar did not attend the opposition leaders' meeting at CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee's residence on Wednesday, during which the decision to table the motion was taken.

Pawar is against Congress president Sonia Gandhi becoming PM. He has said that the prime ministerial candidate should be chosen on the basis of personality and not on numbers.

Besides, although Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has indicated that his party would support the motion, even he is said to be unhappy about Gandhi being projected as a prime ministerial candidate.