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Budget Session: Amid calls for no-confidence motion, Lok Sabha adjourned for the day

High drama in Parliament.

Budget Session: Amid calls for no-confidence motion, Lok Sabha adjourned for the day
Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha today could not take up notices for no-confidence motion against the NDA government moved by Andhra Pradesh parties, with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan saying there was no order in the House and adjourned the proceedings for the day amid vociferous protests over various issues.

 

In the nearly four-year rule of the BJP-led NDA alliance, this is the first time that no-confidence motion notices have been moved against the government.

The notices were moved by YSR Congress and TDP, who have been demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh, an issue on which the latter today quit the ruling alliance.

The no-confidence notices were moved by YSR Congress member Y V Subba Reddy and TDP's Thota Narasimham.

The Lower House proceedings were washed out for the 10th consecutive day following incessant protests and sloganeering by various parties, including TDP, YSR Congress, AIADMK and RJD over multiple issues, including special status for Andhra Pradesh and banking scam.

Congress members were also seen standing at their seats.

Soon after papers and reports were laid during the Zero Hour, Mahajan said she has received a notice for no-confidence motion. "I am duty-bound to bring it... provided the House is in order," she said amid the din.

"I request all of you to go back to your seats," Mahajan told the members protesting in the Well.

As the members continued with the protests, the Speaker said since the House is not in order, she was unable to take up the notice and then adjourned the proceedings for the day.

During Zero Hour, members from TRS and AIADMK were in the Well holding placards and shouting slogans.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal made a statement regarding the government business to be taken up in the House next week.

Earlier soon after the House assembled and was to take up the Question Hour, the proceedings were adjourned till noon and later for the day.

Protesting members from various parties were sporting stoles of multiple colours. While members from TRS were wearing pink ones, those from TDP were seen with yellow stoles. Many AIADMK members, who have been demanding immediate setting up of the Cauvery river management, sported stoles carrying black, white and red stripes.

Members of the Samajwadi Party, which wrested two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from ruling BJP, were wearing their red-coloured party caps. Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav too was sporting the cap.

The House also extended the time for the Joint Committee on the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 to submit its report.

Earlier, three newly elected MPs -- RJD's Sarfaraz Alam (Araria-Bihar) and SP members Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel (Phulpur-UP) and Praveen Kumar Nishad (Gorakhpur-UP) -- took oath.

The House also paid respect to three departed former members and noted cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who passed away this week. Tributes were also paid to nine CRPF personnel, who were killed in a IED blast in Chhattisgarh, on March 13.

Since Parliament reconvened on March 5 after Budget Session recess, the Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions on a daily basis.

On Wednesday amid chaos, the House had passed the Finance Bill and appropriation bills without any discussion.

LIVE Blog
16 Mar 2018
01:06 PM

Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day. Speak Sumitra Majahan, responding to demands for a no-confidence motion said that she would consider it if the house was in order. The BJP has reportedly summoned its Andhra MPs to parliament.

Meanwhile, Cong MP Shashi Tharoor said: “When a no-confidence motion is moved 50 MPs should stand in its support & 50 MPs stood, but Speaker said it cannot be considered as House is not in order. So, I want to ask what does govt fear? They have huge majority in Lok Sabha.”

 

12:19 PM

The Rajya Sabha today witnessed an abrupt adjournment following a brief argument between Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and some Congress members soon after the House assembled for the day. After tabling of the listed papers, Naidu expressed his anguish saying the House has not functioned ever since it resumed on March 5 after recess during the Budget session. Before adjourning the House till 2.30 PM, Naidu said there were larger issues like banking scam, Cauvery river water sharing, demand for a special package to Andhra Pradesh and sealing in the national capital, which were agitating the minds of people and needed to be discussed.

12:00 PM

TDP leader Thota Narasimham moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha today, hours after party president N Chandrababu Naidu announced in Amaravati that the party was exiting the National Democratic Alliance.
Andhra Pradesh's ruling party had yesterday offered to back the YSR Congress' no-confidence motion but has now said it withdraws the support as it smells a nexus between it and the BJP.
"We go according to principles. Our leader felt being part of NDA and moving a no-confidence motion would not be ethical. So we withdrew from the NDA and I have issued a letter on no-confidence motion to the speaker at 9.30 am," Narasimham, the TDP's floor leader in the Lok Sabha, told reporters.
He said letters would go out to BJP leaders about the party's decision to exit the alliance.
 

11:34 AM

The state govt & TDP are feeling the pinch of the public opinion going against them and BJP will use this as an opportunity to grow as a political party and emerge as a dominant political force in Andhra Pradesh. For us it will prove to be the next Tripura: GVL Narasimha Rao,BJP

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