STABILITY IN NDA GOVERNMENT ESSENTIAL IN PUBLIC INTEREST

Almostall Lok Sabha MPs would like to serve a full term rather than face the expense and uncertainty ofa fresh election. Sucha factor has apparently not been taken on board by advisers, suchas Sam Pitroda, who are close to Rahul Gandhi.

- MADHAV NALAPAT

Every politician and the party they belong to claim on al-most a daily basis that all their actions are guided by the public interest. If that were indeed the case, efforts at causing hurdles to the functioning of the Central government are clearly not in the public interest. The more stormy the seas on which the Ship of State is travelling, the calmer the vessel itself needs to be, including both the ruling parties as well as the opposition.

Given the configuration of seats bequeathed by voters in India in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, only a coalition centred around the BJP with its 240 seats can form a stable government. Were the BJP to be in opposition and a cluster of other parties form the government, such a coalition would lack a centre of gravity, something that the largest party within the coalition and its leader need to provide. Something that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are providing, something only they can provide. As a consequence of India being a democracy, the Congress Party doubled its seat tally, reaching a hundred after an elected MP formerly of the Congress Party but expelled after being refused a ticket in the polls and fighting as a rebel, joined the party. In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi realised that with only 197 Lok Sabha seats, he could not come back to office as Prime Minister despite the Congress seat tally being far more than that of the Janata Dal led by V.P. Singh (143). The reason was that he would not be acceptable to enough parties for getting support from them.