{"id":66263,"date":"2024-06-05T12:59:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T12:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/the-new-kingmakers-who-could-make-or-break-modis-government\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T12:59:09","slug":"the-new-kingmakers-who-could-make-or-break-modis-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/05\/the-new-kingmakers-who-could-make-or-break-modis-government\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Kingmakers Who Could Make or Break Modi\u2019s Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/05\/multimedia\/05xp-india-partners-tmlz\/05xp-india-partners-tmlz-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The New Kingmakers Who Could Make or Break Modi\u2019s Government\" title=\"The New Kingmakers Who Could Make or Break Modi\u2019s Government\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After his first two national election victories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India easily set his own terms, with his Bharatiya Janata Party winning clear majorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The result was different in this vote. It was still a victory, but one that left him dependent on a host of coalition partners \u2014 particularly on two other politicians from regional parties who could make or break Mr. Modi\u2019s ability to form a government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of the more than a dozen parties that make up the B.J.P.\u2019s coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, most won just one or two seats. The ones Mr. Modi needs the most are the two who won the most seats behind his B.J.P., both of them avowedly secular and removed from his Hindu-nationalist ideology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cameras on Wednesday were following every word, meeting and movement of the leaders of the two parties, N. Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, and Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal-United, whose combined 28 seats in Parliament the prime minister needs to stay in power and push through his agenda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Here is what to know about the men who have unexpectedly found themselves as kingmakers, and about the parties they lead.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-1a5df40b\"><span>Their parties don\u2019t share Mr. Modi\u2019s Hindu-first agenda.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Though some of the members of the B.J.P.\u2019s coalition this year share Mr. Modi\u2019s hard-line vision, both the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal-United are moderate, secular parties that have a diverse support base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, speculation in India is focusing on what terms the men might demand for their support, which are unlikely to be rooted in ideology. Both Mr. Naidu and Mr. Kumar are known to be pragmatic, deal-making politicians whose priorities will be practical concessions for their state, or perhaps cabinet positions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-5772250e\"><span>They have a history of shifting alliances.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Kumar has earned a reputation in India for his willingness to switch allegiances over the past decade. He has gone between aligning himself with the B.J.P.-led coalition to supporting its rivals no fewer than five times. Most recently, in January, he returned to Mr. Modi\u2019s alliance just 18 months after he\u2019d left it and with just months to go until the election. He has said his switching of political loyalties was in the interest of his state, Bihar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Wednesday, local media reported that Mr. Kumar was on a flight to New Delhi with a politician whose party is aligned with the opposition coalition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Naidu has also at times broken with Mr. Modi, cutting ties with the B.J.P. in 2018 and joining forces with its chief rival, Indian National Congress, ahead of the 2019 elections. He has said that his party has aligned with the B.J.P. out of \u201cpolitical compulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-14e293dc\"><span>They are longtime survivors of a tough political scene.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Naidu and Mr. Kumar have both been in politics for decades, and have been mentioned as potential candidates for prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Naidu of the T.D.P., based in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, is a technocrat who has aggressively pushed for investment from information technology companies in his region. His policies helped bring high-paying jobs for I.T. professionals and transformed the city of Hyderabad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Kumar is a nine-time chief minister of Bihar, India\u2019s poorest state, who comes from a homegrown socialist background. He has pushed for more funds for low-caste Hindus, and his alliance with the B.J.P. broadened support for the party in his state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/05\/world\/asia\/india-elections-modi-coalition.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After his first two national election victories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India easily set his own terms, with his Bharatiya Janata Party winning clear majorities. The result was different in this vote. It was still a victory, but one that left him dependent on a host of coalition partners \u2014 particularly on two other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/05\/multimedia\/05xp-india-partners-tmlz\/05xp-india-partners-tmlz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4309,3954,62667,3135],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66265,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66263\/revisions\/66265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}