JDU’s Nitish Kumar and TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu emerge as “potential kingmakers”
As the counting for the Lok Sabha polls is underway, the BJP is unlikely to cross the majority mark as they have only reached 240 seats and are not expected to reach the 272 majority mark. The NDA is leading in only about 300 seats, while the INDIA opposition bloc is making significant gains, leading in 230 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party will likely need help from other partners to form a government under the rules of India’s parliamentary system, early election results indicated on Tuesday.
This election saw a dip in the BJP’s electoral support, falling far short of Modi’s goal and his last electoral performance. At a minimum, the BJP will have to depend more on the other parties in its existing multi-party alliance.
Regardless of which party leads India’s Union government and who becomes the next Prime Minister, it is now certain that no single party will have the majority in the new Lok Sabha. This implies that there will be a coalition government, and the BJP will be able to form a government only by adding new partners.
At the time of filing this report, the NDA was on track to scrape by with a narrow parliamentary majority—far short of its target of 400 seats, but enough to stay in power with its existing members.
However, Modi remains confident. A third NDA government is certain, says Modi, pointing out that the BJP won more seats than the opposition’s combined tally. Modi told a crowd at his party’s headquarters that his National Democratic Alliance will form the government for the third consecutive time, saying Indian voters had “shown immense faith” both in his party and the coalition alliance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to his “friends” Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu in his speech at the BJP headquarters shortly after the NDA emerged as the winner in the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday. The TDP with 16 seats and the JD(U) with 12 seats are key to the formation of an NDA government.
With the BJP failing to reach the majority mark of 272, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu have emerged as kingmakers in the Lok Sabha elections. According to sources, they are expected to be in Delhi tomorrow.
Nitish and Naidu are expected to arrive in Delhi as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scrambles for partners to form a coalition government after failing to reach the majority mark of 272. Nitish’s Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has won 15 seats, and Naidu’s TDP has won 12 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Both the JD(U) and TDP are part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but there are reports that the two could be poached by the opposition INDIA bloc, which is not very far behind the BJP.
It may be remembered that Naidu was arrested eight months ago and spent two months in jail in a corruption case probed by the rival YSRCP government. Naidu was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh from 1995 to 2004 and became the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation in 2014. He was defeated by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in 2019, but five years later, a TDP-led alliance (BJP and Janasena Party) was leading in 165 of the 175 seats in the state assembly, the elections for which were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election.
Nitish Kumar, after his latest of many political flip-flops, was written off by many. However, the Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party leader N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is set to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, have now emerged as kingmakers in this Lok Sabha election that has not given an absolute majority to the BJP.