Show of strength: The Hindu Editorial on the NDA and its coalition versus the Opposition
The HinduA gathering of 38 political parties in the national capital endorsed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2024 general election and renewed the National Democratic Alliance, which had become redundant with the Bharatiya Janata Party winning a Lok Sabha majority on its own in 2014 and 2019. The NDA has expanded with the induction of several parties in recent months, notably in Maharashtra where splinter groups of two regional parties, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena, have joined the bandwagon. In Uttar Pradesh, Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party has returned to the saffron camp, after an acrimonious split ahead of the 2022 Assembly election; in Bihar, both factions of the Lok Janshakti Party, and breakaway groups and individuals from the Janata Dal are powering the NDA. Apart from these electoral calculations, the point being made also is that the BJP under Mr. Modi, despite its position of strength, is eager to have a broad coalition of parties and social groups.