BJP hopes to win Friday's no-confidence motion moved by Oppn

New Delhi: On the first day of Monsoon Session of parliament on Wednesday, the Congress-led opposition announced its intention to move a no confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. The move was quite similar to the budget session earlier this year. However, unlike the 2018-19 budget session, the Centre did not resist the debate and allowed the chair to take up the notice from TDP and other parties for the motion.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge requested that the motion should be taken up within 10 days but was taken aback when Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan decided to have the motion debated on Friday itself. "Now they are hesitating," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar later said. Opposition parties – CPI(M), CPM, RSP and the Samajwadi Party have supported TDP’s no confidence motion. The Trinamool Congress was the first to seek a different date because it has a mega party event planned in Kolkata over the weekend. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge supported the demand.When the Speaker did not accept the request to put off the no trust vote, Trinamool Congress supreme and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee eventually ordered the party's 34 lawmakers to head back to New Delhi for Friday's vote and return to Kolkata for the TMC event on Saturday.

According to NDTV, sources in BJP said that the change in the government's approach to allow the no-confidence vote was driven by party president Amit Shah.The BJP felt that once the no-trust vote is debated and defeated, the opposition would not have any excuse to disrupt proceedings of the house.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will reply to the debate, is expected to use the occasion as a launching pad for campaign for 2019 general election."We will put the welfare schemes and development projects carried out by the government in last four years before the people," Ananth Kumar added.A BJP leader said the government's numbers would also work to its advantage as more lawmakers from the ruling coalition would get an opportunity to speak on the motion than the opposition because of its sheer strength in the Lok Sabha.Parties are allocated time in debates according to their strength in parliament.The NDA expects to get be supported by at least 314 MPs in the lower house, which has an effective strength of 535 members. The list, however, does not include Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP. The majority mark is 268.