Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on behalf of the INDIA coalition to draw Prime Minister Narendra Modi out to speak on Manipur.

Since Gogoi had submitted the notice before 10am and it was in order, the Speaker read it in the House after Question Hour and asked members who supported the motion to stand up to show their endorsement.

More than the stipulated number of 50 members stood up, and the motion was admitted. The Speaker informed the House that he would schedule the date for the discussion in consultation with party leaders.

While the INDIA coalition managed to get their motion admitted without a hitch, the early-morning move by the Congress to submit the notice before the leaders met in the office of Mallikarjun Kharge at 10am upset some constituent parties, particularly the Trinamul Congress.

Even before Gogoi submitted it, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury — a bitter critic of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee — had announced to the media late on Tuesday night that the INDIA coalition would be moving the motion on Wednesday morning.

Eager to keep Bengal politics from upsetting the coordination within the INDIA coalition, the Congress senior leadership is learnt to have apologised for jumping the gun. They assured the miffed partners that it would not be repeated, ironing out the rough spot before it festered into a bigger divide, sources said.

As a result, the floor coordination continued apace and MPs used every opportunity to raise Manipur. Although they were sure that their references to Manipur would be expunged, the members insisted on using supplementary questions to somehow relate the subject to the strife-torn state.

All these references, barring the one raised as a special mention by CPM’s John Brittas, were disallowed by the Chair.

The INDIA coalition’s sloganeering for the Prime Minister to speak in the two Houses persisted. In the Rajya Sabha, the alliance made an exception for its own members, pausing the slogans to allow them to raise their issues.

Some of the coalition parties have written to the Rajya Sabha chairman urging him not to bring the controversial Delhi-related bill to replace the ordinance through supplementary business.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has made an all-out effort to get the bill defeated in the Rajya Sabha, and the coalition is backing him in this endeavour. Members have been told not to rush to the Well to avoid getting suspended, which could affect the Opposition numbers when the bill is put to vote.

The Congress and Janata Dal United have issued whips to their members. The JDU whip is likely to put Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh in a quandary as he could invite disqualification under the anti-defection law if he does not vote in accordance with the party line.