Coalition Compulsions

The BJP has little scope to win allies from the INDIA bloc or those outside any alliance, making the party heavily dependent on the current NDA partners

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Abhik Bhattacharya

IN 2008, when the Left parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), threatened to pull the plug on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left thought they could prevent the government from going ahead with the agreement.

The Manmohan Singh-led UPA-I came to power in 2004 after the rather unexpected defeat of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. As India gave a split verdict, the UPA’s tally of 225 seats fell 47 short of the majority mark. The NDA lagged further behind with 189 seats.

The Left bloc, which had 61 MPs, helped the UPA form the government by extending external support—without joining the government. They wanted to keep the BJP at bay.

But there were still a few more crucial players—parties that were not part of any alliance had another 74 seats. These parties, including the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), had 36 and 19 seats, respectively. The SP and the BSP had a rather acrimonious relationship with the Congress.

However, when the Left parties decided to withdraw support, the then SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav came to the government’s rescue. A trust vote saw the government winning with the support of the SP, some cross-voting from the NDA, with a few MPs abstaining.

In Parliament, PM Singh alleged that the Left parties wanted him “to behave as their bonded slave”. He was evidently relieved to find a new ally, one less troublesome than the Left.

However, in 2024, the NDA lacks additional options to let go of an ally. When Narendra Modi was sworn in as PM, the BJP’s tally stood at 240—32 seats short of a majority. With another 53 seats from the allies, the NDA’s strength stood at 293.