Opposition notice for no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

Opposition parties have submitted a notice for a no-confidence motion against Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, accusing him of repeatedly acting in a partisan manner and denying Opposition members the opportunity to speak in the House.

The move comes amid sustained disruptions in Parliament during the Budget session, with the Opposition alleging that its leaders have been systematically prevented from raising issues of public importance, including during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.

Congress leaders said the notice for the no-confidence motion was submitted to the Lok Sabha Secretariat with the support of more than 100 Members of Parliament. Under parliamentary procedure, a motion against the Speaker requires the backing of at least 50 MPs to be admitted for consideration.

Opposition parties alleged that the Speaker had failed to uphold the constitutional neutrality expected of the Chair and had instead allowed proceedings to be conducted in a manner favouring the Treasury benches. Central to the Opposition’s grievance is the claim that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to speak during key debates, including on the Motion of Thanks.

The Congress has maintained that repeated requests for speaking time were ignored, despite established parliamentary convention that the Leader of the Opposition is given an opportunity to respond during such debates. Opposition leaders have described this as a serious erosion of parliamentary norms.

The no-confidence notice also follows a series of adjournments and protests in the Lok Sabha, with Opposition members staging walkouts and raising slogans over what they described as arbitrary conduct of proceedings. Several Opposition MPs were suspended earlier in the session, further sharpening tensions between the two sides.

However, the move exposed fault lines within the Opposition camp. The Trinamool Congress did not immediately endorse the no-confidence motion. Party sources said the TMC was adopting a wait-and-watch approach and would decide its stand based on how the Speaker responds to demands for restoring normal functioning of the House.

TMC leaders indicated that while they shared concerns about the conduct of proceedings, they wanted to explore the possibility of resolving the impasse through dialogue before backing an unprecedented move against the Speaker.

Earlier in the day, a group of women Congress MPs wrote to Birla rejecting claims allegedly made by him that they had planned unrest in the House. In their letter, the MPs said the allegations were “baseless” and amounted to an attempt to malign them for protesting the absence of Narendra Modi during crucial debates.

The women MPs asserted that their conduct in the House was within parliamentary rules and accused the Chair of selectively targeting Opposition members while ignoring disruptions from the Treasury benches.

In parallel, Opposition parties also placed what they described as a “truce formula” before the Speaker, proposing steps to end the deadlock. These included revoking suspensions of MPs, allowing Opposition leaders to speak on key issues, and ensuring adherence to established parliamentary conventions.

The government has so far refrained from commenting on the no-confidence motion notice. Senior BJP leaders have, however, accused the Opposition of deliberately disrupting proceedings to avoid debate on legislative and economic issues.

Parliamentary affairs analysts said a no-confidence motion against a sitting Speaker is rare and reflects the depth of the current political standoff. While such a motion is unlikely to succeed given the government’s numerical strength in the Lok Sabha, its admission and discussion could further intensify political confrontation during the session.

The Budget session has already seen repeated disruptions, with both Houses witnessing adjournments over a range of issues, including allegations of bias, suspension of MPs and demands for greater accountability from the Chair.

With neither side showing signs of backing down, the coming days are expected to see continued turbulence in Parliament, raising questions over the smooth passage of key legislative business during the remainder of the session.