In taunting the NDA coalition partners that they had been handed a “jhunjhuna” (baby’s rattle) in government formation, the Opposition may have unwittingly paid tribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Widely perceived as being at the mercy of allies after losing his majority in the Lok Sabha — the BJP fell short by over 30 seats — Modi has given away precious little to major allies like Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar. They’ve got lean bits of flesh, not the proverbial pound.
The distribution of portfolios on Monday saw Modi managing to pull off the game on his terms. The BJP not only retained all the top four ministries of home, finance, defence and foreign affairs but also cornered most other key portfolios of education, railways, health, road transport and highways, commerce and industries, agriculture, rural development, urban affairs, petroleum and natural gas, which it had held in the previous government.
In the UPA 1 government too, the Congress with just 145 seats had managed to keep all the top 4 ministries with itself and repeated the same in UPA 2, when the Congress had won over 200 seats, far less than the BJP’s current tally of 240.
But unlike the Congress during UPA, this is the first time the aggressive Modi will be tested on how he manages coalition dharma.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said that there were two “atrupta aatmas” (dissatisfied souls) in the NDA government, Naidu and Nitish”, indicating that they will rock the Modi 3.0 government in the days to come.
Leaders attached to the Naidu-Nitish groups on the contrary, appeared pleased with the “jhunjhuna” (as AAP leader Sanjay Singh said) they had been offered.
The TDP, with the largest contingent of 16 MPs after the BJP in the NDA, was expected to get some four portfolios but looked gleeful with just one cabinet rank and one junior minister. Three-term MP of the party Ram Mohan Naidu was allotted the civil aviation portfolio, which the party held in the first Modi government.
“I am super excited to get the civil aviation ministry that has a lot of scope and potential…We (TDP) have extended unconditional support to the NDA and so there is no question of any misgiving,” Naidu, one of the youngest ministers in the Cabinet, told reporters today.
Lalan Singh of the JDU, the second largest BJP partner after the TDP, happily took charge of the ministries of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying and panchayati raj on Tuesday. Besides this cabinet rank, the JDU has been allotted a junior minister’s slot as well.
“This is your viewpoint,” Singh replied when asked that the allies have been given “insignificant” departments. “Kaam na koi chhota hota hai na bada. Kaam kaam hota hai,” (A job is neither small nor big. A job is a job), he added, stressing that the department he has got was connected with people’s welfare and urged reporters to shed “negativity”.
Both big allies are playing their small ministerial allotments another way. Sources in the two camps maintain that the interests of their respective states was their priority and not securing key portfolios. Both Nitish and Naidu are learnt to have pressed the demand for special financial concessions — and a special status category — to be accorded to their states and Modi is said to have promised “full support”.
“Let them (the BJP) take all the portfolios. The top priority of our leader Chandrababu Naidu is to get funds for Andhra Pradesh’s development. Money, money…that is our only demand,” one TDP leader said.
Newly appointed civil aviation minister, who will take charge after Naidu’s swearing in as chief minister on Wednesday, too told reporters that the development of Amravati as the new capital of Andhra and the Polavaram irrigation project were their priorities.
“Even as a civil aviation minister I can use my position in the government to get all the jobs done, like Amarvati and Polavaram,” Ram Mohan Naidu said.
In addition to financial concessions for Bihar, Nitish’s other priority would also be to secure his dominant position in the alliance with his state due for polls next year. Nitish could leverage his support to the Modi government to extract a greater number of seats for his party to contest in Bihar, which the BJP has been eyeing for a while.
In the 2020 assembly polls,the JDU could win just 43 seats compared to the BJP’s 74 but Nitish managed to keep the CM’s chair. This may not get repeated in 2025.
How Modi handles the aspirations of his major allies going ahead would determine whether ride here on will be smooth or rocky.
LS Speaker election
After pulling off the portfolio distribution amicably, the upcoming hurdle to be crossed by Modi is the election of the new Lok Sabha Speaker. The TDP, sources said, continues to push for the post to be given to one of its MPs. BJP insiders, however, said they were confident of resolving the issue amicably.
The name of D Purandeswari, the Andhra Pradesh BJP chief elected from the Rajahmundry seat, is doing the rounds as a compromise formula for the next Speaker. “The TDP would agree to Purandeswari since she is the daughter of TDP founder late N T Rama Rao and sister of Naidu’s wife,” one BJP leader said.
