LS fails to take up no-trust motion for 7th day

For the seventh day, notices for the no-confidence motion against the Modi government could not be taken up in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday due to disruptions that prompted Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjourn the proceedings for the day.

Apprehending a wash-out of proceedings, Opposition members had come well-prepared carrying placards with numbers 1 to 80 along with the words 'For no-confidence' written on them

Citing the protests by Opposition members in the Well of the Lok Sabha, the speaker has expressed her inability to count 50 members supporting the no-confidence motion.

More Opposition parties joined the TDP and YSR Congress and submitted their own notices for moving a no-confidence motion against the Council of Ministers.

Notices were given by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge; TDP leaders Thota Narasimhan, Jayadeva Galla, K Ramamohan Naidu and Kesineni Srinivas; YSRCP leaders Y V Subba Reddy and P V Midhun Reddy; CPI(M) leaders P Karunakaran and Mohd Salim; RSP's N K Premachandran; AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi; Muslim League's P K Kunhalikutty and Kerala Congress (M)'s Jose K Mani.

"Unless the House is in order, I will not be in a position to count 50 members who have to stand in their assigned places to ascertain whether there is support for the motion," Mahajan said before adjourning the proceedings till Wednesday.

Kharge said there were more than 50 members who are supporting the no-confidence motion. "We are not running away from the debate. We are ready," she said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Modi government enjoyed the confidence both inside the House as well as outside.

Kumar hit out at the Congress for "hanging on to the coat-tails" of regional parties. "The Congress has lost its primacy and has become a marginal party," the minister said.

The YSR Congress and TDP had first given notices for a no-confidence motion on March 16.

Both Houses of the Parliament have failed to transact any substantive business for 16 straight days since the second part of the Budget Session resumed on March 5.