Delhi confidential: Missing From Dais

Friday’s NDA meeting threw enough hints on how the BJP was trying to accommodate the new reality of a coalition government.

Lok Sabha election result, NDA meet, Jayant Choudhary, Narendra Modi, modi 3.0, Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Eknath Shinde, Chirag Paswan, NDA cabinet formation, NDA govt, indian express news

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary

INSIDE THE Central Hall of Parliament Friday, all key NDA leaders were present on the dais except one — Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Choudhary. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, Jana Sena Party’s Pawan Kalyan, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, NCP’s Ajit Pawar, HAM’s Jitan Ram Majhi and Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s Anupriya Patel were sitting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders on the dais. But Jayant was in the third row with other MPs.

Senior BJP leader Bhupender Yadav, who was making the announcements, made a special mention of Choudhary and urged the MPs to give him some hearty applause. Friday’s NDA meeting threw enough hints on how the BJP was trying to accommodate the new reality of a coalition government. Yadav, who chanted “teesri baar, Modi sarkar”, was prodded by another leader to change it to “teesri baar, NDA sarkar”.

Leader In Demand
WITH THE BJP losing half its seats in Haryana to the Congress, a section of state leaders blamed the last-minute change in the organisation for “things going awry”.

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Former Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb, who was given charge of Haryana in September 2022, was sent to Odisha, where Assembly polls were being held simultaneously, in May first week. While the BJP recorded a stunning victory in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Odisha, it lost five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Deb also had to leave Haryana to campaign in his own seat in Tripura — Tripura (West), which he won with a margin of 611578 — ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on April 19. Many Haryana BJP workers have already communicated to the party leadership that last-minute changes cost the party dearly in the state.

Subdued Mood

The mood in Delhi’s Andhra Bhawan over the last two days has been subdued despite the Telugu Desam Party joining the new government at the Centre with its resounding mandate in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly polls. The reason — TDP president Chandrababu Naidu is not staying at the state bhawan on Ashoka Road. It is learnt that while he visited Andhra Bhawan once, Naidu is currently staying at TDP leader Jaydev Galla’s house on Ashoka Road, just down the street from Andhra Bhawan.

NIA chargesheets 3 in Amritsar temple grenade attack case

Cities1 hr ago

The NIA has charged three individuals for the grenade attack on a temple in Amritsar, Punjab. The investigation revealed a larger conspiracy involving terror operatives in India and abroad. The NIA is determined to bring justice and prevent future threats to national security by tracing financial networks and apprehending other suspects.

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