Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge today made a bold assertion regarding the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, claiming that it was formed by mistake and could collapse at any moment. His remarks come amid ongoing speculation about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) struggling to maintain its alliances.
“NDA government has been formed by mistake. Modi ji doesn’t have the mandate. It’s a minority government. This government can fall anytime. We would like it to continue, let it be good for the country, we should work together to strengthen the country,”Mr. Kharge stated during his address to the media in Bengaluru. Despite his scathing critique of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he expressed his wish for political stability across the country.
The NDA had secured 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabhain this year;s General Assembly elections. However, the BJP, that had previously enjoyed a substantial majority, won only 240 seats and was falling short of the 272 required to form a government independently. The BJP’s ability to form a government for a third consecutive term relied on the support of the four of its key allies, namely, N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with 16 seats, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) (JDU) with 12 seats, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena with 7 seats, and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas with 5 seats.
Kharge’s comment received an immediate reaction from the NDA leaders. A leader from the JDU challenged Kharge to compare the performance of past Congress-led coalition governments.
Historical parallels were drawn to the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, where Congress won a similar number of seats as the BJP did in 2024. In the absence of a clear majority, Congress formed a minority government under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Rao then managed to engineer splits within smaller parties, transforming his minority government into a majority within two years.
