BJP still needs more MPs to pass crucial legislations

India's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has bolstered its numbers to 314 seats with the recent induction of 20 lawmakers from the TMC, signaling a strong push for key legislative agendas. However, the coalition still faces a significant hurdle in achieving the two-thirds majority required for constitutional amendments.

The Narendra Modi government is reportedly preparing to reintroduce legislation to expand the Lok Sabha from 543 to 815 seats and commence a delimitation process based on the 2011 census. Another priority is a bill on simultaneous elections, currently before a parliamentary joint committee.

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A rattled central Home Minister, who is a blot on the dignity of that office once held by Sardar Patel, has brazenly dragged Indian democracy to new lows. He has hatched a conspiracy to illegally engineer the defection of 20 TMC MPs and orchestrate their complete, utterly dubious merger with a political entity that hardly anyone has even heard of.

Securing the necessary majority, particularly in the Lok Sabha where the NDA is 46 seats short of the two-thirds mark, presents a challenge. Constitutional amendments require a majority of the total membership and a two-thirds majority of members present and voting. While the NDA can meet the first condition, the latter requires careful maneuvering.

In the Rajya Sabha, the NDA has 148 seats and expects to reach 155 after upcoming polls. With the two-thirds majority mark at 164, support from the BJD (5 MPs) and YSR Congress Party (7 MPs) is crucial. The Congress party has criticized Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of orchestrating defections to engineer the required majority, calling the merger of TMC MPs into the 'Nationalist Citizens Party of India' a dubious maneuver that diminishes the standing of established allies like TDP and JD(U).

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This bizarre manoeuvre is part of the central Home Minister’s strategy to cobble together a two-thirds majority for the NDA in the Lok Sabha.