New Delhi

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will start the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi government in the Lower House of the Parliament on Tuesday, sources said. Gandhi was reinstated as the Lok Sabha MP on Monday, three days after the Supreme Court suspended his criminal defamation conviction in the Modi surname case. 

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The discussion on the no-confidence motion will begin in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. According to sources, a time of 12 hours has been fixed for the discussion. Prime Minister and the leader of the BJP-led NDA government, Narendra Modi, will reply to the debate on the no-confidence motion on August 10. 

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The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition parties of I.N.D.I.A bloc was accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last week.

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Here is a history of no-confidence motions in India, highlighting the times when ruling governments lost the motion, proving why no-confidence motion is called the ‘weapon of opposition’.

Three times when governments lost no-confidence motions in the past

The no-confidence motion is meant to test whether the government of the day enjoys the confidence of the majority of the house or not.

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VP Singh (1990)

Janata Dal politician Vishvanath Pratap Singh, better known as VP Singh, held the prime minister’s post from 1989 to 1990. He headed a coalition government called the National Front, which was supported by the BJP. He managed to rule for just 11 months before the BJP withdrew support over the Ram temple issue, causing the government to lose a no-confidence motion on 10 November 1990. 

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The former prime minister lost the confidence motion by a vote of 142 to 346 in the Lok Sabha, with eight abstentions. His government needed 261 votes to survive.

Deve Gowda (1997)

The Janata Dal leader became the PM in 1996, with a coalition as the United Front with the support of Congress. However, his fall came almost as abruptly 10 months later, when the Sitaram Kesri-led Congress withdrew its support. 

In a no-confidence motion taken up on 11 April 1997, Gowda’s 13-party coalition succeeded in garnering only 158 votes of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999)

The BJP veteran faced two no-confidence motions through his tenure as prime minister, the first of which his government lost by a single vote on 17 April 1999, after the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK withdrew support. But Vajpayee wasn’t done yet and he manoeuvred the BJP back to power a few months later. 

When the Opposition brought up another no-confidence motion against his government in 2003, it won by an overwhelming majority of 312 to 186 votes.

(With inputs from agencies)

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