Opposition’s no-confidence motion against the central government approved in the Lok Sabha, the speaker said – will take a decision after discussion, what is no-confidence motion
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday accepted the no-confidence motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi against the central government after counting more than 50 MPs as required under the rules. He said that he will fix the time for the debate and inform the House. After the House met at 12 noon and the papers were laid on the table, the Speaker said that he had received a notice from Gogoi to move a no-confidence motion against the government.
He asked members who supported adoption of the resolution to stand, after which members of the I.N.D.I.A coalition, including Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, stood up for the count. After this, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted the proposal expressing lack of confidence in the Union Council of Ministers. Om Birla said that the date and time for discussion on this will be decided after consultation with all the parties.
Senior leaders of the front said that the coalition of 26 opposition parties of India has decided to bring a proposal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak in Parliament on Manipur violence. Though the no-confidence motion of the opposition parties is bound to fail the numbers test, the opposition parties argue that they will win the battle of perception by cornering the government on the Manipur issue during the debate. They argue that getting the Prime Minister to speak in Parliament on the important issue is also a strategy, while the government is insisting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah will respond to the debate on the Manipur situation.
What is no confidence motion
The majority of the government is challenged through a no-confidence motion. If this proposal is passed in the floor test, then the government is considered in minority and it has to resign. No-confidence motion can be presented by any member in the Lok Sabha, but for this the support of at least 50 members is necessary.
In Indian parliamentary history, the process of bringing no-confidence motion started at the time of the first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1963, Acharya Kripalani brought a no-confidence motion against Nehru. Only 62 votes were cast in favor of this proposal while 347 votes were cast against it. After this, many Prime Ministers including Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh had to face no-confidence motion.
