No takers for Congress plan against speaker

The Congress' bid to bring a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla appears to have fizzled out after many Opposition parties showed no interest in backing any such move, it is learnt. Sensing the mood, the Congress floor leaders also didn't make push their idea at Wednesday's meeting of the floor leaders of like-minded Opposition parties at LoP Mallikarjun Kharge's office.

Some senior Parliamentarians, including those from the Congress, felt those who floated such an idea, and those in the Congress leadership who backed it, might have missed out on certain basics, such as the larger Opposition mood and procedural requirements. "It seems some in the Congress came with an idea without doing basic homework," quipped a Lok Sabha MP. "I am not aware of any serious proposal for a no-confidence motion against the Speaker. As a matter of fact, there is no time left in the session to fulfil the basic requirement of a minimum 14 days' notice for any such motion," BJD Parliamentarian Bhartruhari Mahtab told ET. The budget session is slateds to end on March 6. "I am not aware of any such proposal," said TMC MP Sudip Bandhopadhaya.