BHUBANESWAR: Just 15 months in power, the BJP government in the state is facing a no-confidence move with the Congress submitting a notice on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly, on Thursday.
A delegation of Congress MLAs and the lone CPM MLA Laxman Munday submitted the notice for moving no-confidence motion to the Assembly secretary Satyabrata Sahu under section 117 (1) of the rules and procedures of the House. The notice said, “This House expresses no confidence in the present Council of Ministers led by Mohan Charan Majhi.”
Leader of the Congress legislature party (CLP) Rama Chandra Kadam told mediapersons that they have submitted the notice of no-confidence against the government and urged the Speaker to accept it for moving a no-confidence motion. He said that the notice has the signature of all the 14 Congress MLAs and one member of the CPM.
Congress has also sought the support of BJD, the main opposition party, on the motion. “We had requested the BJD to bring a no-confidence motion against the government in the House. However, Congress has taken the initiative as the BJD did not make any move in this regard,” he said.
Later, Kadam and senior Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati met deputy whip of the Opposition Pratap Deb and BJD MLA from Balikuda-Erasama Sarada Jena in the Assembly chamber of the leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik to discuss the issue. However, the BJD does not seem to be interested to support a Congress-sponsored no-confidence motion against the government.
The BJD denied that there was any meeting at Naveen Nivas as the leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik is not in Bhubaneswar now. Deputy leader of Opposition Prasanna Acharya said the BJD cannot jump into a decision immediately. “Let the Speaker decide on the no-confidence motion and BJD will take a decision at the right time. It is too early, BJD will take its own decision,” he added.
Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallick said the Congress had not discussed about the no-confidence move beforehand with the BJD. “We will raise our own issues,” he added.
Numbers in the Assembly also do not support the Congress which has only 14 members and support of the lone CPM MLA. The BJD has 50 MLAs while the ruling BJP has 78 members. There are three Independents, who are now aligned with the BJP.