The TDP, on which the BJP-led NDA depends for a majority in Parliament and which has a significant Muslim vote bank in Andhra Pradesh, expressed support for the move, as did the Shiv Sena and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).
“We will be supporting it,” Lavu Krishna Devarayalu, leader of TDP in the Lok Sabha, told The Indian Express. “As of now, there is no discussion. But whenever we find the need for it, we will be looking into it. We will definitely involve various stakeholders before we adopt it,” Krishna said.
The TDP and the JD(U), which also has a sizeable Muslim vote bank in Bihar, had earlier opposed any legislation without adequate consultation, but the TDP appears to have since softened its stand on the issue. “It (UCC) is very much needed in a country like India, which has different religions and cultures,” said a TDP leader.
Before the TDP joined the NDA following the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which brought down the BJP’s tally to 240 from 303 in 2019, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had said that when it “comes to a UCC, the TDP will stand with the Muslim community”.
In Andhra Pradesh, of the total population of 8,45,80,777, Hindus accounted for 7,48,24,149, or over 88%, while Muslims numbered 80,82,412, or almost 10%, according to the 2011 Census.
In Patna, JD(U) leader and former state minister Shyam Rajak reiterated on Monday that the party favours the Bill at the national level, but not in Bihar. JD(U) leader and former chief minister Nitish Kumar had previously underlined the need for broad national consensus on the issue before its implementation.
Rajak told reporters: “When this Bill came to Parliament, our leader (Nitish Kumar) was clear: that we support it but will not let it be implemented in our state (Bihar). We stand by this.”
Asked about the party’s stand, senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha said the party will take up the issue with the BJP’s national leadership. “We will discuss it with the Home Minister,” Jha, who is also national working president of the party, told The Indian Express.
Another Bihar ally, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), has always maintained that it will evaluate the potential impact and legal framework once a blueprint or draft bill on the issue is presented to it.
Shah’s latest remarks came three months after the BJP swept the elections in West Bengal, where the previous TMC government had vehemently opposed the UCC. On Monday, BJP Bengal president Shamik Bhattacharya said the party’s state government will initiate the process for the passage and implementation of the law as soon as possible.
“We are going to introduce the UCC, it’s not a hidden agenda for us. BJP, since its inception, has been holding it as one of its priorities and now it’s our moral duty to fulfil it. A large section of the population is also keen to see that a uniform civil code is implemented in the state,” Bhattacharya told The Indian Express.
However, the BJP’s new Bengal ally, Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), formed of MPs who have broken away from the Trinamool Congress, said the party, which has 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha, would have to deliberate on the issue.
“We heard that the NDA-ruled states are going to implement it. It’s a serious issue which needs a lot of thinking and deliberation. We will do that once a proposal is made. We will have discussions before taking a stand,” party leader and senior MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told The Indian Express.
The 2011 Census puts West Bengal’s total population at 9,12,76,115, of which Hindus constitute 6,43,85,546, or over 70%, and Muslims, at 2,46,54,825, account for a little over 27%.
Other allies Shiv Sena and HAM (S) reiterated their backing for the UCC.
Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde said: “The UCC is similarly rooted in the principles of equality, justice and national unity. It has also been a long standing ideological position of our founder Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray. As an ideological ally, it is our bounden duty to stand firmly with the government in fulfilling the commitments made to the people of India. Our leader Eknath Shinde is deeply committed to the implementation of the UCC and to advancing the vision of a strong, united and progressive India.”
HAM national president Santosh Kumar Suman “wholeheartedly” welcomed Shah’s statement on the UCC and extended the party’s support to it.
The TDP has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha followed by the Shiv Sena with 13, the JD(U) 12, the LJP (RV) five, and the HAM (S) one. The TDP and the JD(U) have four members each in the Rajya Sabha, and the Shiv Sena has two.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with his wife Sonal Shah, offers prayers and performs rituals at the Vandre Paschim Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal in Bandra West on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. (@AmitShah X/ANI Photo) 
Share
