The 15-party National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Wednesday named Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader of the alliance for a third straight term, starting the process for the formation of a new government under his leadership.
“We are all proud that the NDA fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls unitedly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and won. We, the leaders of the NDA, unanimously elect Narendra Modi as our leader,” said a three-paragraph resolution in Hindi passed by the top NDA leaders.
The resolution said that people have seen the country being developed in every sector in the last 10 years due to the pro-people policies of the NDA government under PM Modi and underlined the government’s commitment to serving the poor, women, youths, farmers and deprived sections of society.
Among the 21 leaders who attended the meeting convened by PM Modi were Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, and Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, the three leaders key to the numbers. The TDP won 16 Lok Sabha seats (its partner the Jana Sena won two, so it should be counted as 18); the JD(U), 12; and the Shiv Sena, 7. The 37 seats, added to the BJP’s 240, take the party safely beyond the majority mark of 272.
The other significant NDA allies, in terms of numbers, are Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (RV), with 5 MPs, and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal and HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular), with 2 each.
The NDA meeting comes hours after PM Modi formally handed over his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu and conveyed the Union Cabinet’s decision to dissolve the 17th Lok Sabha. President Murmu accepted PM Modi’s resignation and requested him to continue in office till the new government is formed.
The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party with 240 seats but was 32 seats short of the majority mark. Along with MPs from 14 other parties, the BJP touched 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
With the NDA at 293, PM Modi is on course to become only the second PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to secure a third consecutive term but the BJP’s failure to win an outright majority on its own will puts the strongman leader at the mercy of his mercurial allies, Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu.
Opposition will continue to fight Modi’s rule
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has said in a statement that the opposition INDIA alliance “will continue to fight against the fascist rule of the BJP led by Modi”.
“We will take the appropriate steps, at the appropriate time to realise the people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP government,” he said.
Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress, says the alliance “will keep up with the promises we have given to the people”.
He also said in remarks to the media that the people had given a “befitting reply to the BJP and their politics of hate, corruption and deprivation”.
“This is a mandate in defence of the Constitution of India, and against price rise, unemployment and crony capitalism, and also to save the democracy,” he added.
