The National Democratic Alliance, diminished after the exit of one of its oldest constituents, the Shiv Sena, met on Sunday, with the remaining allies of the BJP asking for a coordination committee and a convener for the grouping to avoid further alienation within the alliance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded positively to the demand.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan said he personally felt the absence of the Shiv Sena at the meeting, and suggested that the grouping needed more cohesiveness.
“The differences between the NDA allies, which we witnessed in Maharashtra, should not happen. That’s why a convener or a coordination committee should be appointed,” he said.
He added that he was backed in this demand by the JD(U) and the Apna Dal.
Significantly, Mr. Paswan’s party is going it alone in the Jharkhand Assembly election after seat-sharing talks with the BJP did not come to fruition. “It is a matter of concern that first the Telugu Desam Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party left the alliance,” he said.
Sources also confirmed that some allies of the NDA from the Northeast expressed concern about the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) that Union home minister Amit Shah has said would be conducted across the country.
Mr. Modi, who chaired the meeting, also seemed to be not unaffected by the exit of the Shiv Sena. According to sources at the meeting, he stressed that the NDA was like a “huge family”.
“Prime Minister Modi said the NDA was like a huge family and that we needed to work together for the people. He also said while our ideologies were different we were still like minded parties who had been given a huge mandate. Small differences should not be allowed to unsettle the alliance and that a coordination committee could be considered,” said a senior NDA leader present at the meeting.
