Passing contentious Bills in Parliament likely to become tough for NDA

Party likely to find it difficult sans support of allies, cooperation from Opposition

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) short of majority in both Houses of Parliament, it will find it tougher to push contentious Bills, especially those that would require constitutional amendments, without the support of its allies and cooperation from the Opposition.

These would include the ‘one nation one election’ proposal.

The former President Ram Nath Kovind-led committee, which submitted its report on March 14, had suggested that the government must develop a legally tenable mechanism for accomplishing ‘one nation one election.’ It advised a total of 18 constitutional amendments to achieve the objective.

Apart from the Uniform Civil Code, where allies, such as the Janata Dal (United), have suggested that the government talk to all stakeholders, the Electricity Amendment Bill is also pending.

It would require the government to reach out to the Opposition and some of the parties that are not aligned to either of the two blocs — the NDA and the Opposition INDIA bloc.

In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP-led NDA will have to rely upon seven political parties who together have 32 MPs in the Upper House.

These are the YSR Congress Party (11 MPs), Biju Janata Dal (9), Bharat Rashrta Samithi (5), AIADMK (4), Bahujan Samaj Party (1) and a couple of smaller parties from the Northeast. Of these, the BJD, BRS, AIADMK and BSP no longer have any representation in the Lok Sabha, while the YSRCP has four members.

In the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP is currently 97-member strong, three of its members are set to resign as they have been elected to the Lok Sabha. These are Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Piyush Goyal and Sarbananda Sonowal. It will also lead to the BJP finding a new Leader of the House instead of Goyal. BJP national president J P Nadda is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

With Goyal, Scindia and Sonowal quitting the Rajya Sabha, the BJP’s strength will reduce to 94 and that of the National Democratic Alliance will be 106. The Congress-led INDIA bloc has 88 MPs.