The placard-wielding members of the opposition parties protesting in the well of the Lok Sabha for a clutch of reasons drowned out whatever little chance they had of allowing the no-confidence motion moved by the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress to be taken up on Monday.
The opposition parties were protesting on a range of issues, including special category status for Andhra Pradesh and increasing share of Cauvery waters for Tamil Nadu.
As has been happening every single day since the House reassembled on March 5 after the recess break in the Budget Session, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for the day, citing lack of order, minutes after noon. And like in the past days of this session, it was adjourned for a short while before finally being adjourned for the day. But not before the speaker asserted that she was duty bound to have a discussion on the no-confidence motions.
The no-confidence motions of the two parties were slated to be taken up after the question hour, and the TDP and YSR Congress had reportedly been assured of support by the Congress as well as the CPI(M), both in Parliament and outside. The Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress and the AIMIM have also said they would support the motion, which, however, will be defeated given the BJP's numbers in the Lok Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party was suspicious that the AIADMK raking up the Cauvery issue was intended to help the BJP escape from having to face a discussion and voting.
While the House was disrupted, the battle between the opposition and the ruling party over the issue of the no-confidence motion spilled over to social media, where BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav slammed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for what he said was 'political gimmicks'. The TDP has recently walked out of the NDA.
While the BJP is said to be relieved given they would like to test the Andhra waters independently, the saffron party's ability to take along its coalition partners has taken a huge hit with the TDP's departure.