Carefree Modi:

Different strokes:

Saying no to no-confidence:

Coalition faultlines:

The casualties:

What's the point:

NEW DELHI: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Wednesday won the lottery to move a no-confidence motion against the NDA government, the second time this year, and, which, likely to their surprise, was accepted by the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan—a clear indication that the government is confident of sailing through the no-confidence motion .Opposition benches had expected the government to take a while before agreeing to a no-trust motion and use the issue till then as ammunition. But government managers were keen to avoid giving the impression that they were running away from a floor test despite a large majority.BJP plans to paint Congress and other opposition parties as an opportunistic alliance driven by no ideology other than ousting Modi. NDA speakers can be expected to highlight contrasts from the UPA tenure by way of improved pace of development and strong measures to clean up the economy by promoting digitisation, insolvency laws, linking welfare benefits to Aadhaar and direct transfers and measures to boost farm incomes.The opposition, though aware that numbers are against it, is looking to use the debate to attack the Modi government over several issues and showcase unity among non-NDA parties. “We will raise issues such as price rise, rising intolerance, poor implementation of GST, harm caused by demonetisation and the distress caused to farmers and inadequacy of the new MSP regime,” said a leader.Launching an attack on Modi in a televised debate which should fetch eyeballs nationally may have psychological benefits too.Rising stridency over "communal" issues — which has seen BJP accuse Rahul Gandhi of stating that Congress is a "Muslim party" at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, drawing a sharp response denying the remark and an assertion that the party stands for the last man in the line mark — can be expected to be reflected in the House in full measure.BJP managers are looking at "unaligned" regional parties to weaken the impression of an anti-BJP front and NDA constituents met to consider strategy to post a strong tally and also to deplete opposition numbers. “The party did not want to give the impression that it is avoiding a floor test,” a BJP leader said."The party has issued a whip for all MPs to be present on Thursday and Friday as we are confident of winning comprehensively," parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said. Other leaders added that party managers would see if absentions reduced the opposition numbers while prospects of cross voting are slim.The numbers, of course, back the Modi-led government.With 273 BJP members, along with 39 allies, the NDA government has a total of 312 members - giving its a comfortable majority with 57% of the vote.TDP's motion is against, what it says, the NDA's non-fulfilment of its promise to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.While the first no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha was introduced by Acharya Kriplani in 1963 against the Jawaharlal Nehru-led government, a majority of such motions have been symbolic since they were against government headed by a majority party.No-confidence motions have only worked when coalition governments were at the helm at the Centre, the first such successful motion being by Congress leader Y B Chavan in July 1979 against then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who resigned after the loss.Only three Prime Ministers after Morarji Desai have been booted out by a no-confidence motion—V P Singh in 1990, H D Deve Gowda in 1997 and Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1999—and all three headed coalition governments with their own party in a minority.The no-confidence motion will serve as a test case for opposition unity ahead of next year's General Election as the TDP has asked other political parties to support to their motion, besides serving as an opportunity to engage in a debate with the government to highlight its failures when the motion comes up for discussion tomorrow.Meanwhile, three bills were passed in both houses of the Parliament on the first day of the Monsoon Session: the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was passed in the Lok Sabha, while the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill and Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017 were passed by the Rajya Sabha.