No-Confidence Motion Against Speaker Om Birla to Be Taken Up on March 9

The debate and subsequent vote on the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will be taken up on March 9, when the House reassembles after the recess, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Sunday.

According to Rijiju, the second half of the Budget Session, which is set for March 9–April 2, will be "interesting" because Parliament will be considering and passing several "important" laws as well as a "critical" bill.

He cautioned that opposition parties would eventually suffer if they carried on with their protests as they had done in the first half of the session.

"On March 9, in the Lok Sabha, we will have the debate on the no-confidence motion moved against the speaker. It is the rule to take it up on the first day. There will be a vote following the debate," he told PTI in an interview.

The Budget Session began with the president's address to the joint sitting of Parliament on January 28 and went on recess on February 12. The Union Budget for 2026 was presented on February 1, and the session will resume on March 9, concluding on April 2.

Rijiju, who is on a visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, Arunachal West, mentioned that during the second part of the session, the government plans to identify specific ministries for discussions.

"In the Lok Sabha, we will discuss the demands for grants in five ministries and in the Rajya Sabha, we will discuss the working of five other ministries. In the Rajya Sabha, it will not be on demands for grants but discussions on the ministries," he said.

The administration would choose five ministries for the Rajya Sabha to discuss, followed by five ministries for the Lok Sabha, the minister added.

Noting that the second part of the budget session will be interesting, he said, "If the opposition doesn't allow the House to function, we will go for the guillotine. It will be a loss for them," he said.

In response to a question about why this portion of the session would be especially intriguing, he pointed out that it falls during the approaching assembly elections in the Union Territory of Puducherry as well as four important states: West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Kerala.

"We will bring some important bills, including one critical bill. We will not disclose now as to what the bill is, but we will bring up one very important business in the second part. We will pass all these bills," he said.

He said the government has not yet made a decision on whether to propose a measure on holding simultaneous elections in the second part of the session because the Parliamentary committee that was established to review the legislation has not yet completed its report.

He added that the opposition will lose if they do not take part in the discussion.

The minister stated the Trinamool Congress did not sign the motion of no-confidence against the speaker, suggesting a possible rift in the opposition's unity. " Most of the smaller parties are not in favour of stalling the House. They want to raise their issues, especially ahead of the assembly polls," he said.

The Lok Sabha was disrupted during the first half of the session, starting February 2, after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was prohibited by the chair from quoting passages from the unpublished memoir of former army chief M M Naravane that discussed the 2020 India-China conflict.

Opposition demonstrations prevented Prime Minister Narendra Modi from responding to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on February 4.

On February 5, the Motion of Thanks was carried without the prime minister's usual address, which was an unprecedented step. Despite opposition members' sloganeering, the Motion of Thanks to the President for her Address was approved by voice vote after the Speaker read it.

Birla later stated that he received concrete information suggesting that several Congress MPs might carry out an "unexpected act" near the prime minister's seat, prompting him to advise Modi against attending the House for his address. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra refuted this claim.

Subsequently, eight opposition members were suspended for the remainder of the Budget Session for unruly behaviour in the House.

Last week, the speaker decided to step aside from his role as the presiding officer of the House, hours after the opposition submitted a motion for his removal from office, alleging that he had acted in a "blatantly partisan" manner.