No-trust motion: Confident BJP to use opportunity to attack opposition

NEW DELHI: With over 312 NDA MPs in its bloc, the Modi government is confident of defeating the no-confidence motion. It has begun preparations to turn the debate into a reachout exercise to its prospective voters by underlining achievements of the last four years and slamming the opposition on several issues.

BJP sources said the government will field impressive speakers to attack the opposition. While the names are still being finalised, the government may field Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Ravi Shankar Prasad (ministers who are members of the Upper House are allowed to participate) to take on BJP’s opponents. LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan may defend the government on Dalit issues, while Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel may speak on the rights of the backward classes.

PM Modi will be the final speaker in the debate. BJP has pinned its hopes on him to deliver a strong political speech where he will dwell on issues like triple talaq, Congress being a ‘Muslim party’, opposition attempts to unite against BJP and his government’s efforts to alleviate the sufferings of farmers, women and the “last man in the queue”. Congress will be the main focus of the attack as it is the principal opposition and BJP’s main competitor in most states.

BJP held a meeting of its floor leaders and whips on Wednesday and directed them to reach out to allies and like-minded parties. The party is confident that troublesome ally Shiv Sena (18 MPs) and parties like TRS (11) and AIADMK (37) will vote with the government. While TRS does not want to side with Congress, a prospect even BJD (20) may find problematic, AIADMK is soft on BJP as it had given the post of deputy Speaker to the party. BJP also expects the support of PMK (1), Swabhiman Paksh (1), Independents (3) and two Anglo-Indian MPs.

“The NDA will unitedly vote against the motion. We are confident that Narendra Modi’s leadership will get us support from even outside NDA,” parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said.

While it remains to be seen if the whole opposition will vote on the no-confidence motion, BJP does not want to be seen heading a numerically weaker NDA. “This debate will also allow the opposition to vent its energy on issues like Nirav Modi and banking scam, the state of the economy, and lynching but that will help us run the rest of the session smoothly,” a BJP minister said.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s announcement that she is accepting the motion against the NDA government took many parties by surprise.

The second surprise came when the Business Advisory Committee agreed to hold the debate and voting on Friday, just 48 hours later. TMC had not sent any leader to the BAC meeting as its floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyaya is away in Bengal.

Party leader Dinesh Trivedi raised the issue in the House and said TMC MPs are away in Bengal for the Martyr’s Day programme scheduled for July 21. When the Chair did not heed their request for postponing the adjournment motion, TMC issued a whip to all its 34 MPs to be present on July 20.