With Bihar Assembly elections nearing, NDA is likely to appoint a convenor

With the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled later this year and some of its constituents keen that their concerns be given a hearing in a structured format, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), could soon appoint either a chairperson or a convenor. 

 

The NDA’s last convenor was N Chandrababu Naidu. On Tuesday, Naidu who had returned from Europe after celebratomg his 75th birthday with his family, met several Union ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, in the national capital. 

 

Naidu was the convenor of the NDA from 2013 to 2018, when the Telugu Desam Party, which he still leads, had exited the alliance. However, unlike the practice since 1998, when the NDA was founded, the convenor of what is now a 41-party coalition could be from the Bharatiya Janata Party, sources said.

 

The NDA was formally launched on May 15, 1998. Its first convenor was socialist leader George Fernandes, who was then with the Samata Party, which later merged with the Janata Dal (United). Fernandes was convenor from 1998 to 2008. JD (U)’s Sharad Yadav succeeded Fernandes as the NDA convenor until the Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) walked out of the alliance in 2013. Naidu succeeded Yadav.

 

In July 2024, on his first visit to the national capital after being sworn in as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister in June, Naidu told the media that his party was amenable to heading any coordination committee that the NDA might set up. “As and when needed, I am prepared. If there is any proposal from the NDA, I will think about it,” he said. However, the NDA’s coordination committee, revived in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, had become dysfunctional by the middle of 2016. The NDA, as the BJP won single party majorities in 2014 and 2019, was largely forgotten during the period. In the last week of May, 2023, the Narendra Modi-led government celebrated its ninth anniversary with customary fanfare.  Almost a fortnight before this, the 25th anniversary of the NDA, which was formally launched on May 15, 1998, had gone unnoticed.

 

Keeping allies happy

 

> 1990: Prime Minister VP Singh met BJP and Left leaders, parties which gave outside support to his govt, for dinner every week

> 1996-98: During the 13-party United Front govt, coalition partners had a steering committee with N Chandrababu Naidu as convenor

> 1998-99 & 1999-2004: During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA governments, George Fernandes was the convenor of coordination committee. In 2008, Sharad Yadav replaced Fernandes. In 2013, when the JD (U) exited NDA, Naidu succeeded him

> 2004-2008: UPA-I government, Congress, and Left leaders had a coordination committee

> 2009-2014: During UPA-II, Congress relented to form a coordination committee after NCP protested, but it remained dysfunctional

> 2014-2019: In the Modi-led government, the coordination panel met a few times until 2016 but was mostly inoperative. Naidu was the convenor from 2013 to 18. The NDA did not have a convenor after the TDP severed its alliance with the BJP in 2018