Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term yesterday along with 71 other ministers of his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. He is the first non-Congress prime minister to be elected for a third consecutive term and only the second prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to do so.
The new government will have 30 ministers, five ministers with independent charge and 36 ministers of state. The Modi 3.0 cabinet has ministers from 11 allied countries and 24 states, and 65% of the cabinet members are from OBC, SC, ST and minority communities.
The NDA won a total of 293 seats in the elections, of which 240 were Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seats. The party fell 32 seats short of a majority. Block India was not far behind with 232 seats. The result was quite different to what the exit polls predicted, with the NDA winning 365 seats (NDTV poll). The final verdict was a major setback for the BJP’s campaign call for “Mission 400”.
Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress has made a comeback, nearly doubling its number of seats from 52 in 2019 to 99 by 2024. Regional parties have emerged as the NDA’s leading contenders, with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) winning 16 and 12 seats respectively. The Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) also performed well, winning 29 and 37 seats respectively.
The 2024 mission has three key messages: balance of power, stability and continuity.
Balance of power
After a decade under Modi, India returned to the days of coalition governments from 1989 to 2014, when the BJP ruled with a simple majority. The party did not need alliances in the past decade, but the NDA government created space for allies to take ministerial posts. But power was largely in the hands of the BJP.
Voters not only sought “balance” in this election,Abukibar 400 pairCurrently, 20 states have NDA governments and 10 are opposition-led. The verdict underscores the strength of India’s federal system, which votes for regional parties and allows them to claim their rightful share of the central pie. Governments need to bring together various agencies and stakeholders, something Modi himself defined as “cooperative federalism” early in his first term.
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Sixty ministers are from the BJP and 11 from alliance partners, including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Dal (United) (JD-U), Rajya Sabha Socialist Party (LJP), Apna Dal, Rajya Sabha Socialist Party (RLD), All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Jana Dal (Secular) (JD-S), Republican Party of India (RPI-A) and Shiv Sena.
Stability
There are three elements that will bring stability to Modi 3.0.
- This is a pre-election coalition and it is more stable than any post-election government.
- The BJP is the main partner in the coalition, holding around 80% of the seats.
- The BJP remains at the forefront of Indian politics, with 2.4 times as many seats as the Indian National Congress and more than the entire Indian bloc.
True, Atal Bihari Vajpayee with 182 MPs and Manmohan Singh with 145 MPs in UPA1 and 206 MPs in UPA2 both completed their terms. But they were not without problems. The Modi 3.0 government can be compared more to the PV Narasimha Rao government of 1991. At that time, the Congress had 244 MPs. The era of economic liberalisation arrived during this period between 1991 and 1996.
Former chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, HD Coomaraswamy, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Manohar Lal Khattar and Sarbananda Sonowal are in the cabinet and their presence has brought stability to the government given their years of administrative experience.
continuous
Voters voted for the continuation of the BJP-led NDA government, albeit with a smaller majority, a change of government that is both a reward to the BJP and Prime Minister Modi for the progress they have made over the past decade, and a check and balance.
Prime Minister Modi has been consulting with allies to demonstrate continuity in his party’s policies and policies. Vishwabandhu The Bharatiya Janata Party (global ally) is likely to continue to maintain its position on the world stage. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s economic policies that focus on growth with welfare are gaining momentum as its two key allies, Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, also support these aspects.
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At least 16 senior members of the previous cabinet were sworn in, further increasing continuity in the government, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Seetharaman, Piyush Goyal, Manush Mandavida, Jyotiraditya Scindia and JP Nadda. The continuity also reinvigorated the markets, which saw a massive rally that erased the losses recorded on June 4.
Prime Minister Modi said,Salvamat“Consensus – consensus – will be important in every decision the next administration takes. This is key to achieving our mission of balance, stability and continuity.”
(Amitabh Tiwari is a political strategist and commentator. He was previously a corporate and investment banker.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.
