Why TMC didn’t sign no-confidence motion against Speaker Om Birla: ‘Instead of trying to flex muscles…’

“So, our approach has always been constructive, calibrated. Instead of trying to flex muscles, we want to give the opportunity to the Chair. If our issues are not addressed in three days, then we can always move a no-confidence motion against the Speaker. There’s no problem. There’s no place for ambiguity or doubt,” he added.

Sources told The Indian Express that the TMC wanted to give Birla seven days to consider the issues being raised by the Opposition before moving ahead with the motion. “We communicated our stand in the meeting of INDIA bloc floor leaders this morning. Our members have not signed the notice,” said a TMC MP. “We don’t think it is wise to be so hard on the Speaker over the issues raised by the Congress and other parties,” the MP added.

While the TMC is part of the larger INDIA bloc, party leaders have always maintained that the party allies with the bloc on issues, but it is not an “electoral alliance”. In the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls, the Congress and the TMC are both going solo, while the Left parties will also be in the fray separately.

The Speaker has been under attack for not allowing Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to quote from or speak about former Army chief General M M Naravane’s unpublished memoir, and over his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have been attacked inside the House. The Speaker had said that he had “credible information that several members from the Congress” would create “an unprecedented incident after reaching the Honourable Prime Minister’s seat”, and that it was he who had “requested the Prime Minister not to come to the House” where he was scheduled to speak on February 4.