The no-confidence petition against the BJP government was accepted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla, setting the ground for a struggle that the governing NDA is expected to easily win but that will be used as a springboard by its rivals to hone their anti-Modi platform.
Birla said the date for discussion on the no-trust motion, the first to be faced by the Modi government in its second term, will be decided after consulting all parties.
Assam-based Congressman Gaurav Gogoi made the proposal, which was approved by the Speaker as soon as 50 MPs, the needed number under the rules, rose in favour of it.
There are indications that the debate and the vote will be scheduled after passage of important legislations, including one that seeks to replace the ordinance promulgated last month to wrest control of the bureaucracy in Delhi from the state government. The Congress and its allies have maintained that while they, with numbers stacked in favour of the government, know its outcome, they decided to force the contest in order to "force" the PM to speak.
There were enough indications that the BJP was also looking forward to the debate as an opportunity to turn the tables on Congress and others on a range of issues and to sharpen its own themes of "Modi versus the Rest" and "dynasts and nepotists ganging up on the common man's PM".
By giving a statement at the opening of the new ITPO complex that seemed to be a prelude to the intended attempt to carry the war to the opposing camp, Modi himself demonstrated the combative purpose.