The Narendra Modi government will face its first no-confidence motion on Friday.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion against the Modi government moved by the Telugu Desam Party which was supported by a large number of Opposition parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP, Left parties, Samajwadi Party and AAP among others.
“The House will take up the debate (on the motion) on Friday, July 20. The discussion will be held for the full day, followed by voting on it,” Sumitra Mahajan announced in the House when it reassembled after lunch break on the first day of monsoon session of Parliament.
The Speaker said that there will be no Question Hour on Friday and the House will have no other business, barring the discussion on no-confidence motion.
“I want to make it clear in the House that people have full confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government,” Parliamentary Affairs Minsiter Ananth Kumar said.
Scramble for attendance
The BJP and the Opposition parties scrambled to ensure presence of their members in full strength in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Trinamool members were caught unawares as they were planning to attend a party function in Kolkata on Saturday.
However, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed all the 34 Lok Sabha members of the party to attend House proceedings on Friday. The BJP, Congress and TDP and other political parties have issued three-line whips to their members to attend the Lok Sabha on Friday.
“Who says we do not have the numbers,” UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi told a group of reporters in Parliament.
Stormy start
Earlier, the monsoon session of Parliament got off to a stormy start with the TDP and SP members raising slogans in the Well of the House on issues of special status to Andhra Pradesh and implementation of job quotas for SC/STs in higher education institutions respectively.
Congress members kept pointing out to the Speaker that they had submitted notices for moving a no-confidence motion against the government. The Speaker said the notices would be dealt with after the Question Hour.
Later, she asked TDP member Kesineni Srinivas to seek permission of the House to move the no-confidence motion against the government, leading to protests from Congress benches that they too had given similar notices.
Sumitra Mahajan made it clear that she had called the TDP member to move the motion as he was the first person to submit the notice on Wednesday morning. When the Speaker put the motion moved by Srinivas to vote, a large number of Opposition members, including Congres leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, K C Venugopal, NCP leaders Tariq Anwar and Supriya Sule, CPI(M)'s Mohd Salim among others, stood up in support of the motion.
“More than 50 members are supporting the motion, so the leave is granted (to bring in no-confidence motion),” she said, admitting the notice.