No-confidence motion against Modi gov't defeated in Indian parliament

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The no-confidence motion introduced by opposition political parties against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was defeated in the parliament's lower house Lok Sabha late on Friday night.

Division of votes over the no-confidence motion took place at around 11:10 p.m. on Thursday after a debate that lasted for more than 12 hours.

While the government got the support of 325 lawmakers, the opposition parties could muster the backing of only 126 lawmakers, out of the total 451 lawmakers who were present and voted.

This was the first no-confidence motion which Modi government faced from the opposition parties in more than four years of its existence.

The no-confidence motion was brought in by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the ruling party in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and supported by other opposition parties, including the main opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC).

The southern state had witnessed a bifurcation in 2014, and a separate state of Telangana was carved out of it. Since then, the TDP lawmakers had been demanding a special financial package from the Modi government for the reorganization of the state.

After waiting for over four years, the TDP lawmakers introduced the no-confidence motion against the Modi government in a bid to expose its failure of not giving the special financial package.

(Top image: A woman watches a news television debate about Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a no-confidence motion in parliament, at an electronics store in Kolkata, India, July 20, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency