BJP chooses NDA govt's stability over Rajya Sabha majority after Lok Sabha polls

In the first Parliament session after the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP is dealing with the new realities following the change that the country has witnessed in its political landscape.

In the process, the party had to make some big decisions, one of which was to give preference to the NDA government's stability in the Lok Sabha at the cost of losing majority in the Rajya Sabha.

In the post-Lok Sabha poll scenario, the BJP ended up losing the support of YRSCP, which has 11 MPs, and BJD, which has 9 MPs, in the Upper House. These 20 MPs played a crucial role in passage of crucial bills in the Rajya Sabha in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last term (2019-2024).

Losing critical support

The challenge for the BJP started after it decided to join hands with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh at the state as well as the national level. Realising that the balancing act between N Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would no longer work, the BJP leadership formalised its alliance with the TDP just before the Lok Sabha polls and gave up its understanding with the YSRCP.

“We are not with the NDA and our leader has told us to raise the issues that concern the people of Andhra Pradesh,” Meda Raghunath Reddy, Rajya Sabha MP of YSRCP, told The Federal.

Moreover, the BJP’s historic win in Odisha assembly elections led to an end of its understanding with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The regional party is now playing the role of the Opposition in the state assembly as well as the Rajya Sabha and is no longer ready to help the BJP in Parliament.

“It is the decision of our leader Naveen Patnaik. We will play the role of an opposition party and raise the issues that are of importance to the state and the country. We were not part of the NDA but we used to support to it earlier. We will now play the role of Opposition, both in Odisha assembly and Parliament,” Sulata Deo, BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson, told The Federal.

Single largest party

Though the BJP remains the single largest party in Rajya Sabha with 87 MPs, the problem for the ruling alliance is that it is short of majority. The NDA’s tally stands at 106, well short of 114-mark in the 226-member Upper House.

What has added to the BJP's woes is the fact that the INDIA alliance parties together have at least 86 MPs on their own and if both YSRCP and BJD, having 20 MPs together, remain at loggerheads with the Union government, the strength of the Opposition parties would match the numbers of the NDA.

Political analysts believe that the political calculations of both YSRCP and BJD have gone haywire in the recently-concluded elections as both the regional parties not only lost the assembly elections but also did not perform well in the general elections.

“The BJD had a clear understanding with the BJP that they will focus on the politics of Odisha. However, BJD this time was thrown out of power in the state and also didn’t perform well in the Lok Sabha polls. The defeat of BJD at the hands of the BJP has made NDA its main rival. The scenario is no different for YSRCP, which wanted to concentrate on state politics but lost political space both in assembly as well as Lok Sabha polls. Now, the YSRCP leadership needs to oppose NDA to regain the lost ground in Andhra Pradesh,” Yatindra Singh Sisodia, Director at Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research, told The Federal.