No-confidence motion in Haryana today: BJP needs JJP MLAs, independent legislators

Haryana Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manohar Lal Khattar is leading in Karnal constituency with registering over 66 percent of the total votes polled.

The Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government in Haryana will face a no-confidence motion in the assembly amid farmers’ protest on March 10.

The BJP has 40 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly. It has the support of 10 JJP MLAs and five independent legislators. The Congress has 31 seats. Two seats in the assembly are vacant. The majority mark stands at 45.

The Opposition Congress has claimed that two Independent legislators have withdrawn support of the government.

Ahead of the no-confidence motion, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party and the opposition Congress on March 9 issued whips to their legislators, asking them to be present in the Assembly during the motion.

Read our Live Blog on Farmers' Protest Here

The Assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta had last week fixed the date for discussion on the motion. Leader of the Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had said that the need to move a no-confidence motion had come because the BJP-JJP government had lost public confidence in the backdrop of protests against farm laws.

“Two Independent MLAs who were supporting the government have withdrawn their support. Some MLAs of their alliance party said this is the most corrupt government. We will get to know who stands with whom when we will bring in the no-confidence motion against the Manohar Lal Khattar government," Hooda said

The move, however, is seen as an act to embarrass the government amid the farmers' protests and mount pressure on Dushyant Chautala's JJP.

The ruling alliance has said that there was no threat to the government.

"There is no threat to the Haryana government, and it will last its full five-year term," Chautala was quoted by news agency PTI.

The farmers' protest against the agri-laws at border points of New Delhi has entered the 105th day on March 10. Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi borders. The protest started on November 26, 2020.

Click here for Moneycontrol's full coverage of the farmers' protest