No-Confidence Motion: PM Modi To Reply In Parliament On Aug 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition against the BJP-led NDA government on Thursday.

Just before the adjournment of the House on Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made the announcement. "The PM will be present in the House tomorrow to reply to the no-confidence motion," the Union minister told the Lower House.

On July 26, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted a no-confidence motion moved against the Narendra Modi government by the Opposition.

The motion's notice was submitted by Gaurav Gogoi, a Congress MP, and received backing from all members of the INDIA bloc, with a combined representation of 144 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Furthermore, the motion advocated by Gogoi, who holds the position of Congress party's deputy leader in the Lower House, was also endorsed by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by Telangana CM KCR.

Nonetheless, Modi's government is not poised to lose the vote, given that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners maintain a majority in the Lok Sabha. A no-confidence motion against the Council of Ministers can be initiated by any Lok Sabha MP who garners the backing of at least 50 colleagues, at any juncture. Subsequently, deliberations on the motion are conducted, during which MPs in favor of the motion underscore the government's deficiencies, while the Treasury Benches address the raised concerns. Ultimately, a voting process unfolds, and should the motion garner sufficient support, the government is compelled to vacate its position.

The BJP alone has 303 MPs in the Lower House of the Parliament and the combined strength of the NDA stands at 331. The numbers of unaligned parties' MPs are 70 in the Lower House.

It has to be noted that this is the second time Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing a no-confidence motion. In 2018, the first such motion against the Modi government was introduced in 2018 over granting a special category status to Andhra Pradesh which was later defeated.