New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi against the Narendra Modi government after a head count of over 50 MPs as required under the rules. He said the time of the debate will be fixed by him and conveyed to the House.
After the House met at 12 noon and papers were laid on the table, the Speaker said he has received a notice from Gogoi for moving a motion of no-confidence against the government. He asked members supporting the admission of the motion to stand after which INDIA alliance members, including Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, stood up for a head count. Birla then admitted the motion expressing want of confidence in the Union Council of Ministers.
Birla said a date and time for discussion on it will be fixed by him after consultation with all parties. The alliance of 26 opposition parties, INDIA, had decided to move the motion in order to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak in Parliament on the Manipur violence, senior leaders of the front said. Although the no-confidence motion by opposition parties is bound to fail the numbers test, opposition parties argue that they will win the battle of perception by cornering the government on the Manipur issue during the debate.
They contend that it is also a strategy to make the prime minister speak in Parliament on the crucial matter even as the government has been insisting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah will reply to the debate on the Manipur situation.
With the majority mark in Lok Sabha at 272, the PM Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is safe with 331 members. The BJP alone has 303. The opposition INDIA alliance has 144 while parties like KCR’s BRS, YS Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP and Naveen Patnaik’s BJD have combined strength of 70.
A no-confidence motion is a parliamentary tool used by the opposition to express its lack of confidence in the government. The ruling party must then prove its majority in the House to maintain confidence. If it loses the majority, the government will fall immediately. The government can remain in power as long as it has the majority in the Lok Sabha.
As per Article 75 of the Constitution, the Cabinet is collectively accountable to the Lok Sabha. Only the opposition can bring this proposal, and it can be introduced in Lok Sabha only, not in the Rajya Sabha. Any party in parliament can move a no-confidence motion against the government, and the ruling government must prove its majority to stay in power.
From Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, to Narendra Modi in 2018, several leaders have faced this proposal. While some survived, others like Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, VP Singh, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee saw their governments fall due to no-confidence motions. The last no-confidence motion faced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government in 2018 was defeated by 199 votes.