The no-confidence motions of the past

On July 26, the Lok Sabha accepted a no-confidence motion submitted by Gaurav Gogoi from the opposition alliance INDIA against the Narendra Modi government. Here, we look at which Prime Ministers faced the most no-confidence motions, the duration these motions were discussed and how close or easy their victories were.

27 no-confidence motions

Since 1952, 27 different no-confidence motions (NCM) have been moved against different governments. All 27 motions were defeated by the government in power, except one in 1979 when the then-Prime Minister Morarji Desai resigned before voting could begin. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi saw the most no-confidence motions in her term (15).

However, Indira Gandhi’s tenure was also the longest. Adjusting the number of NCMs to tenure, a different picture emerges. The chart below shows the number of NCMs each Prime Minister faced per year of holding office. Lal Bahadur Shastri faced the most number of NCMs per year of holding office among all the Prime Ministers.

While Indira Gandhi’s tenure was 15.86 years long, L.B. Shastri’s was only 1.59 years long. In this time, he faced three NCMs. On the other hand, Jawaharlal Nehru faced only one NCM in his term of 12.11 years after the first Lok Sabha session.

Also read |Explained: No-confidence motions

Discussion time

Similarly, this pattern is also seen in the number of hours no-confidence motions were discussed in Parliament. No-confidence motions against the Indira Gandhi government were discussed for close to 160 hours in total. In comparison, the three NCMs against L.B. Shastri were discussed for a total of just over 51 hours.

However, when we divide the hours of discussion by the number of years each Prime Minister spent in office, L.B. Shastri tops the list again. The chart below shows that he spent over 32 hours per year of office in an NCM discussion. In comparison, Indira Gandhi spent close to 10.

In 1964, L.B. Shastri faced a no-confidence motion that was discussed for around 24 and a half hours. Few Prime Ministers had to face such long discussions during no-confidence motions. Only three other Prime Ministers saw discussions longer than 20 hours. For instance, the no-confidence motion discussion during Nehru’s term went on for over 21 hours. However, the former Prime Minister only faced one NCM in his 12 years.

Margin of victory

While L.B. Shastri faced the most NCMs per office year and the longest discussions, Narasimha Rao came the closest to losing a no-confidence motion. In 1993, his government defeated the no-confidence motion by a margin of just 14 votes. Another motion had been introduced a year earlier, which Mr. Rao won by a margin of just 46 votes.

Also read |No-confidence motion | Ayes or nays? Unaligned parties weigh choice

The Prime Ministers who lost confidence motions

Besides these 27 no-confidence motions, nine confidence motions have been moved. Two others were not put to vote since the Prime Minister announced their resignation. These are motions introduced in 1979 and 1996 during Charan Singh’s and A.B. Vajpayee’s tenures respectively.

Of the nine confidence motions that were put to vote, three Prime Ministers lost the motion. V.P. Singh lost a confidence motion in 1990 by a margin of 204 votes. H.D. Deve Gowda lost in 1997 by a margin of 134 votes. Later, in 1999, A.B. Vajpayee lost the confidence motion in 1999 by just one vote.

H.D. Deve Gowda and V.P. Singh won confidence motions by voice vote in 1996 and 1989 respectively. In 1997, I.K. Gujral won another by voice vote.