22 years of happiness, now five years of pain! For the first time Modi will be drenched in sweat while running the government

New Delhi: In 2001, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave the order and Narendra Modi suddenly became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. he/she had not contested any election, but the assembly elections were held the next year. In 2002, for the first time, Narendra Modi had to lead his/her party in the Gujarat assembly elections. BJP won 127 seats with 49.85% votes in the 182-seat assembly. Modi managed to retain power in Gujarat with a clear majority. Since then, his/her streak of leading majority governments continued. After forming majority governments for the second and third time in the 2007 and 2012 Gujarat assembly elections, Modi came to central politics and maintained the same dominance.

The trend that started from Gujarat continued at the centre as well, but…

In 2014, he/she formed the government at the center for the first time by winning 282 seats, 10 more than the majority figure, and became the Prime Minister of the country. In 2019, Modi’s charisma was at its peak and BJP got 21 more seats. In 10 years, due to development, welfare schemes and many other strong fronts including favorable caste equations, BJP gave the slogan of ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar’ in the 2024 elections, but when the results came on June 4, the trend that started from Gujarat in 2002 was broken. BJP, which entered the election fray under the leadership of Modi, remained away from the majority figure for the first time. Limited to 240 seats, BJP and Narendra Modi have had to take the support of crutches to form a new government. This is like walking on Agnipath for Narendra Modi. Efforts are being made to make this path as easy as possible.

Team Modi is working hard to maintain coordination with allies

In fact, the new Modi cabinet will take oath on June 9. The formula for including allies in the government has also come to the fore. It is being said that in the new government of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), one minister will be made for every four MPs of the partner parties. Efforts are on to form a sustainable government with the cooperation of all parties. Top BJP leaders were engaged in this discussion on Thursday and senior party leaders were deployed to talk to the allies. Several meetings were held at the residence of BJP Chief JP Nadda. In the morning, senior BJP leaders Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and General Secretary BL Santosh held a marathon meeting with Nadda. The party leaders also met senior RSS officials separately. Nadda and Shah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his/her residence in the evening. Shah and Nadda along with Singh are likely to coordinate with the allies.

Round of meetings inside BJP too

Nadda and Shah also held meetings with outgoing ministers Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnav, Mansukh Mandaviya and party general secretaries Vinod Tawde and Tarun Chugh. BJP sources said that talks with allies regarding portfolios have not yet taken a formal shape. But all NDA allies agree that there should be no obstacle in government formation. he/she said that the BJP is confident that apart from the post of Lok Sabha Speaker, it will retain four major departments like Home, Finance, Defense and Foreign Affairs as well as ministries related to the life of the common man.

TDP is citing Atal government

A senior party leader said that in the NDA government led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the post of Lok Sabha Speaker was given to the TDP but it did not take any ministerial post. Sources in the TDP, headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, said that since their primary focus is on Andhra Pradesh and its development, the party may demand portfolios that will help in speeding up the completion of Polavaram irrigation project and the state’s new capital Amaravati.

When asked about the portfolios demanded by the TDP, party MP Ram Mohan Naidu told our sister publication The Economic Times (ET), “Our priority is the development of Andhra Pradesh and fulfilling the aspirations of the people. Our party chief will take a decision based on that.” he/she said the TDP is committed to a smooth and stable NDA government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There are indications that both the TDP and the JDU, the key alliance partners, are demanding financial assistance or special status for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. This will be Narendra Modi’s first experience of running a government on conditions.