Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during the proceedings of Lok Sabha during the Parliament Budget Session, in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
With the Lok Sabha likely to take up next week a notice seeking Speaker Om Birla’s removal from office, both the Congress and the BJP have issued whips directing their members to be present in the House from March 9 to 11 during the second part of the Budget Session, which commences on Monday (March 9, 2026).
Opposition MPs, citing specific instances of “partisan behaviour” by Speaker Birla, had filed a resolution seeking his removal. A total of 118 Lok Sabha MPs signed the resolution. The Trinamool Congress was the only major Opposition party not to sign, saying that the Opposition should have escalated the issue step by step, allowing Mr. Birla an opportunity to defend himself against the charges.
The first part of the session was marked by sharp exchanges between the two sides. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s address during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address was interrupted by protests from the ruling benches, who objected to his attempt to cite excerpts from the unpublished memoir of former Army Chief General Naravane.
Eight Opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the session for violating rules and “throwing papers at the Chair”. Their suspension will continue in the second part of the session as well. The Lok Sabha on February 5 passed the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address without the customary reply by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Birla decided on moral grounds that he would not attend the proceedings of the House until the notice for the no-confidence motion against him was resolved.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh recalled the first such resolution filed in 1954, when the combined Opposition strength was around 50 members and the Congress had 364 MPs in a House of 489. “These are democratic instruments, instruments of parliamentary democracy. The Opposition has every right. We will have a debate; let’s see what happens after that,” he said.
Three Lok Sabha Speakers, G. V. Mavlankar (1954), Hukam Singh (1966), and Balram Jakhar (1987) faced such resolutions, though none of them passed.
Published – March 06, 2026 09:42 pm IST
