No Confidence Motion defeated by voice vote after opposition MPs walk out

The No Confidence Motion brought by the opposition parties in the Parliament was defeated today after Prime Minister Narendra Modi replied to the motion. Although the result of the motion was already known as the Modi government does not face any challenge in terms of numbers, at the time of the voting, only treasury bench MPs were present in the house.

After three days of debate following the tabling of the motion by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, the opposition MPs walked out when PM Modi was speaking. They didn’t wait for the PM’s speech to conclude or to participate in the voting on the motion.

After the PM concluded his speech, speaker Om Birla invited Gaurav Gogoi to deliver his concluding remarks as the mover of the motion. But there was no response, as the MP from Assam was not present in the house. After calling his name several times, the speaker put the motion for voting, and it was easily defeated by a voice vote.

No Confidence motion defeated in Lok Sabha by voice vote.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, who had moved the motion, was absent along with other opposition MPs. pic.twitter.com/FmaONCDOKD

— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) August 10, 2023

Following the voting, speaker Om Birla expressed unhappiness over the conduct of Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and BJP MP Virendra Singh Mast, saying their behaviours were not parliamentary. Responding to the remark, Mast apologised for causing interruptions during the debate, saying that he could not tolerate the insult of his leader.

Following this, the speaker asked parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on the matter. The minister said that Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress party in the house, interrupted the speeches of PM Modi and other members of the treasury bench. He said that it has become the habit of Chowdhury to interrupt others, and he repeatedly makes false allegations.

As a result, Pralhad Joshi passed a motion to suspend Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Lok Sabha for the rest of the session. He said that for ‘gross, deliberate, and repeated misconduct of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in utter disregard to the house and the authority of the chair’, the matter of misconduct of Chowdhury should be referred to the committee of the privileges of the house for further investigation, and he should be suspended from the house till the committee suspends its report.

The motion was passed by voice vote, which means the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha has been suspended from the house.