Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister, and Tejashwi Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader are scheduled to travel to Delhi today for meetings. After the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Opposition INDIA bloc strategizes their next steps, to form a new government at the Centre.
As the BJP has failed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own, Nitish Kumar’s NDA-allied JD (U) has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and has emerged as a key player in government formation, while the INDIA bloc is also sending feelers to him.
The meeting by the Union Cabinet is scheduled to take place at around 3:30 pm while the meeting by the INDIA bloc will be held in the national capital at 6 pm.
An INDIA bloc partner, Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD, has secured four Lok Sabha seats. During the weekend, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi Kumar had visited Delhi and met top BJP leaders.
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In Bihar, other members of the NDA coalition, namely Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), have secured five and one seat(s) respectively.
“RJD has increased its number of seats in Parliament and garnered over one crore votes. Our performance has been very good. We had contested the elections on real issues. The INDIA bloc got the blessings of Lord Ram. One thing is very clear… the Modi factor is now finished. BJP is now dependent on its allies for the majority,” Yadav told media persons before leaving for Delhi.
When asked about whether the INDIA bloc will try to form the government, he said, “We will obviously try.”
This time, BJP won 240 seats which was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. In contrast, Congress registered a strong growth of winning 99 seats. Posing stiff competition and defying all predictions, the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured a third term, but the BJP will need to rely on the support of other parties in his coalition – JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and TDP’s chief Chandrababu Naidu.
BJP fell 32 seats short of the 272 majority mark after votes polled in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were counted. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014, it did not secure a majority on its own for the first time.
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