Modi faces first floor challenge tomorrow

STRATEGY Ruling party set to sail through, Oppn keen to corner govt in debate

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha will debate and vote on the opposition’s no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government on Friday, speaker Sumitra Mahajan said on Wednesday in a surprise move, setting the stage for the first no-trust vote on the floor of Parliament in 15 years .

On the first day of parliament’s monsoon session, the Speaker admitted a notice of no-confidence motion by Kesineni Srinivas, a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an estranged ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.. A group of other opposition parties have supported the motion, but the arithmetic of the house offers a comfortable numerical edge to the government -- the BJP alone has 273 members in the house with an effective strength of 535 members, excluding the Speaker. Nine seats are vacant.

The motion for the debate will state, “This House expresses no confidence in the Council of Ministers”. A ruling party leader said on condition of anonymity that the government wanted the no-confidence motion to be wrapped up quickly so that the remaining days of the monsoon session can be devoted to getting important bills passed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, he said, also wanted to take the opposition by surprise by accepting the no-confidence challenge on day one. “We feel the opposition will have no issue to disrupt the house after the no-confidence is taken up,” a minister said.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that his party, as the largest single opposition group, be allowed to move the no-confidence motion, but the Speaker declined.