This Article is From Jul 19, 2018

How The Numbers Stack Up For PM Modi's First No-Trust Vote

No-Confidence motion: Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK and K Chandrashekara Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi will support the government, sources said. Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal is expected to abstain.

How The Numbers Stack Up For PM Modi's First No-Trust Vote

PM Narendra Modi will respond to tomorrow's debate on the no-confidence motion in Parliament.

New Delhi:

Comfortable in its numbers, the NDA government has made every possible effort to get waverers on its side. All the day, party chief Amit Shah had worked the phones, managing to pull over not just cantankerous allies like the Shiv Sena, but also waverers like the Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK and K Chandrashekara Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi, sources said.

As of now, the only party that is expected to abstain during tomorrow's voting is Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal. The Odisha Chief Minister will take a call on the issue tomorrow. "We are yet to get any direction from him," said BJD lawmaker Prasanna Patsani. There are reports that the party has ordered all its 19 lawmakers to be present in parliament tomorrow.

Abstention by the BJD brings down the majority mark of 267 to 258.

The BJP and its allies have between them 314 votes. Along with AIADMK (37 seats) and TRS (11 seats) its number will go up to 362.

The Congress and the opposition parties will have a maximum number of 152 seats.  The number could even drop because a few lawmakers may not be present for the voting.

A lawmaker of Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, JC Diwakar, has also threatened to bunk parliament. While TDP is the main mover of the no-confidence vote against the government, Mr Diwakar Reddy has said that he is "fed up" with the Centre and his party's government in Andhra Pradesh.

Bengal chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee and party lawmaker Subroto Bakshi have been allowed to skip the voting as they are expected to accompany the Chief Minister for the key party rally.

The opposition parties have, however, made it clear that its main objective in the no-confidence vote is the debate that precedes the actual voting. Ahead of next year's general elections, the parties hope it would give them an opportunity to pin the BJP government to the mat.

The BJP, which was accused of stalling the TDP's no-trust move during the budget session, is hoping that once the no-trust vote is debated and defeated, the opposition would not have any excuse to disrupt proceedings in parliament, sources said.

.