The Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP has secured the support of its political alliance partner National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the new government. Yesterday at the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi, a meeting was held with Narendra Modi and the BJP high command of the partner parties.

After the meeting, in a statement on social media X, BJP said that Narendra Modi has been unanimously chosen as the leader of the alliance. He is the next prime minister of the country.

In fact, Narendra Modi is going to serve as Prime Minister for the third time in a row due to his victory in this election. In a statement on Wednesday, the BJP said that all the NDA parties have confirmed their support for him.

Among the 21 leaders named in the statement are Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N Chandrababu Naidu and a representative of Janata Dal United (JDU). The support of these two parties is crucial for the BJP to secure the required 272 seats in the Lok Sabha to form a new government.

Analyzing the statement posted by the BJP on social media X on Wednesday, a group of political analysts say that there should be no shortage in BJP’s confidence in getting the partners to form the government.

“The NDA Government led by Shri Narendra Modi is committed to serving the poor, oppressed, exploited, deprived people and women, youth and farmers of India,” the statement said.

Earlier, the alliance leaders attended a meeting led by Narendra Modi. They can be seen quite well there. Some even indulged in jokes with him.

‘Kingmaker’

Both the TDP and the JDU are former allies of the Congress. A few months before the election, they Mr. Joins Modi’s alliance.

Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) chief Nitish Kumar, who was once an ally of the BJP, left the NDA a few years ago and was one of the architects of the ‘India’ alliance with anti-BJP parties.

However, in January of this year, he changed the alliance again and joined the NDA. Nitish is now running the government with the NDA alliance in Bihar and his party was also part of this alliance in the Lok Sabha elections.

JDU won 12 seats in Bihar, not much they expected. Again BJP got 12 seats in that state.

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party or TDP won 16 seats. Like Nitish Kumar, Chandrababu Naidu was also opposed to the Modi government until recently.

Both these leaders have now become ‘kingmakers’ after the results of the Lok Sabha elections. It is not impossible for the regional teams to surprise. However, all seems to be well within the coalition for now.

What is the next step?

With the support of allies assured, Narendra Modi is expected to meet President Draupadi Murmu soon. In that meeting, he will express the necessary support for the formation of the government.

Local media including NDTV are reporting that he may take oath as the Prime Minister on Saturday. Although nothing is officially known about this yet.

On the other hand, the opposition has not yet given up despite not getting the desired number of seats to form the government. However, the chances of turning the tide at this stage are slim.

The challenge of managing alliances

Earlier, Narendra Modi has formed government in the state and center several times. However, it has never had to depend on anyone else to qualify to form a government based on the number of seats.

Even in the last 10 years, the use of power in the management of the central government remained entirely in the hands of him and Home Minister Amit Shah, no one else was at the center of power.

But now if there is a coalition government there will be others participating, they will have to be heard too. The tendency of those alliance partners to change sides is well known.

Veteran journalist Sanjeev Srivastava tells the BBC, ‘This government cannot run without the crutch of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar is used to changing alliances like the wind.’

In his words, ‘Narendra Modi has no experience of working in this model. In the last three decades, he has been the chief minister of Gujarat three times and the prime minister twice and has exercised a kind of monogamous dominance.”

‘Now suddenly it will be a challenge for him to do politics based on coordination, consensus. The stability of this government depends on how much he can accept this new way of working. Source: BBC

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