Today in Politics: Will INDIA bloc move no-confidence motion against Jagdeep Dhankhar in Rajya Sabha?

Sources said MPs of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) — parties that have not been attending the Congress-led protests outside Parliament on the Adani issue — have also signed the notice under Article 67(b) of the Constitution. This is the second such attempt by the Opposition parties this year. The resolution, however, should be moved with at least 14 days’ notice. The Winter Session of Parliament ends on December 20.

According to 67(b), “a Vice-President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People; but no resolution for the purpose of this clause shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.”

A senior Opposition leader told The Indian Express, “Leave aside technicalities (like 14 days’ notice), leave aside the fact that we in the Opposition don’t have the numbers … a message has to go to the BJP they cannot ruin Parliament like this. We are fighting to save Parliament democracy,” Asked when the Opposition was planning to submit the notice, another senior leader said “very soon”.

“This government is murdering Parliament,” said TMC’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose. “They are scared because they do not have the answers to issues affecting common people. The BJP and the government are misusing high constitutional offices and making them subservient to executive power. The Opposition does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, but this is a fight against all those who want to ruin our Parliamentary system. At stake is the integrity of our parliamentary democracy itself and the solemn constitutional rights of every representative of the people.”

The INDIA bloc parties together have 103 members in the House plus the support of Independent MP Kapil Sibal. The Opposition parties, which have been accusing Dhankhar of partisanship for some time, have been mulling submitting a notice for bringing an impeachment resolution since the last session.

They were also upset over Dhankhar naming Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi last week in the context of recovery of what he called a “wad of currency notes from the seat allotted to him.

Sources in the Opposition bloc said the opportunity given by the Chair to some of the ruling party members to raise the issue of alleged Congress links with a forum that is said to have received funds from billionaire investor George Soros further upset the Congress and prompted it to revive the move. Leaders of Opposition parties claimed they had collected the signatures required from all INDIA bloc parties for giving the notice.

Last day of nomination for December 20 Rajya Sabha bypolls

Tuesday will mark the last day of nominations for the Rajya Sabha bypolls in four states, necessitated either by the resignation of sitting MPs.

The bypolls will be held on December 20 to fill three vacant seats in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Odisha, West Bengal and Haryana. While the seats in Andhra fell vacant due to the resignation of three YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) members – Mopidevi Venkataramana, Beedha Mastan Rao and R Krishnaiah – the seats in Odisha and Bengal were vacated by Sujeet Kumar (BJD) and Jawahar Sircar (TMC), respectively. The seat in Haryana fell vacant after Krishan Lal Panwar was elected as MLA.

The BJP has renominated Krishnaiah from Andhra, former National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma from Haryana and Kumar from Odisha while the TMC has fielded Ritabrata Banerjee. The remaining two seats in Andhra have been given to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is yet to make a formal announcement but is likely to renominate Rao and field businessman Satish Sana Babu for the two seats.

– With PTI inputs