Two kingmakers: Naidu pledges support to NDA, Nitish keeps cards close to chest

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 4

Dismissed for varied reasons, two regional stalwarts — Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar — on Tuesday emerged as kingmakers after the BJP fell short of the majority, posting 181 wins and 59 leads (240) in the Lok Sabha poll where 272 is the simple majority mark.

Naidu had to spend two months in jail in 2023 over corruption probe by the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh and was nearly written off in the state. Nitish has often been mocked for his history of serial desertions.

But the TDP with 16 strong leads in Andhra Pradesh and the JD(U) with 12 in Bihar, both hold the key to power at the Centre — evident from the fact both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the two earlier today.

Overall, as of 10 pm on Tuesday, the NDA had 292 leads—much above the majority in LS and the opposition INDIA partners had 232. To BJP’s relief, TDP officially declared this evening that it would stay with the NDA alliance, which had been formed for the welfare of Andhra Pradesh.

JD(U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was, however, yet to open his cards amid indications that the opposition bloc was also in touch with him. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi sufficed to say that a decision on whether to stake claim to government formation at the Centre would be taken at a meeting of partners in the capital on Wednesday.

PM Modi, meanwhile, in an evening message to BJP workers and India’s voters said the NDA had been “blessed with a historical third term”. Modi signalled clear plans to take over as PM for the third time in a row.

While the ruling and the opposition sides postured, all eyes were on Nitish, who continues to be questioned for his many flip flops.

Importantly, both Nitish and Naidu have played major parts in the era of coalition politics in the 1990s. In 1996 at the time of a fractured national mandate, Naidu as convenor of the United Front, a bloc aligned neither to the BJP nor Congress, was instrumental in the installation of HD Deve Gowda as Prime Minister with outside support of the Congress.