No-confidence motion in Parliament: Shiv Sena leaves BJP in dismal, skips no-trust vote debate

In a major embarrassment to the ruling Narendra Modi government, disgruntled NDA ally the Shiv Sena on Friday chose to stay absent from the no-confidence motion debate in Parliament.

"Shiv Sena is the party which always follows the directive of party chief. We have decided to take a principled stand after the government made so many mistakes on land acquisition, demonetization," NDTV quoted Sena’s Anandrao Adsul as saying.

“We always fight for the people, no one has supported us. So we have nothing to do with Telugu Desam Party's motion," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah had called Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray seeking his support during the no-confidence motion. After the conversation between the leaders, the BJP had claimed that the Sena will back the ruling government.

However, Sena’s absence would not make any big difference to the result of the no-confidence vote and the Modi government will sail through easily as the majority mark came down to 249.

Earlier, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) also walked out of the house, saying the TDP’s motion against the Modi government had nothing for the south Indian state.

Modi government was hoping 330 votes in its favour after the AIADMK decided to support the ruling regime on the no-confidence motion in the parliament. The opposition parties were likely to get slightly over than 150 votes in their support.