Following the withdrawal of support by the four Left parties to the UPA government, the prime minister has communicated to the president that he would seek a “trust vote” (sometimes also called a confidence motion) in Parliament.

The Constitution does not mention either a confidence motion or a no-confidence motion. Article 75 does specify that the council of ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People. This implies that the majority of Lok Sabha MPs must not be against the prime minister and his cabinet. In 1991, Narasimha Rao formed a minority government and later scraped together majority support.

Article 118 of the Constitution permits each house of Parliament to make its own rules for conduct of business. Rule 198 of the Lok Sabha specifies the procedure for a motion of no-confidence. Any member may give a written notice; the speaker shall read the motion of no-confidence in the House and ask all those persons to rise who favour that the motion be taken up. If there are 50 MPs in favour, the speaker allots a date for discussing the motion. The first NDA government lost such a motion in 1999.

Confidence motions have evolved as a counter by the government when it wants to demonstrate its majority. There is no special provision in the rules for a confidence motion — such a motion is moved as an ordinary motion under Rule 184. In recent times, when no party has had a clear majority, the president has appointed a prime minister who he believed had the majority support. This person is expected to prove his majority through a confidence motion. For instance, in 1998, President Narayanan appointed Vajpayee as prime minister on the basis of written support by a majority of MPs but asked him to secure the confidence of Parliament in 10 days.

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