NEW DELHI, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced non-confidence motion in Indian parliament on Friday, its first since it assumed power in May 2014.
The no-confidence motion is being discussed in lower house Lok Sabha Friday, and it will reach the upper house Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Brought in by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the ruling party in southern state of Andhra Pradesh which has 16 lawmakers in Lok Sabha, the no-confidence motion is destined to fail as the ruling alliance - NDA - seems comfortable to sail through with the support of over 300 lawmakers in the 545-member strong Lok Sabha, which currently has an effective strength of 533 members only. As many as 10 seats are lying vacant.
To be precise, the NDA currently has the backing of 314 lawmakers out of the total 533 sitting members, whereas the majority mark stands at 267. On the other hand, the main opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC) and its allies seemingly have the support of a mere 152 seats.
The opposition parties had tried to bring in the no-confidence motion in the previous session of parliament, the Budget Session, during March-April, but could not succeed as Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had denied it.