The INDIA alliance is reportedly trying to woo the Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal United but the process of government formation will begin tomorrow with the Union Cabinet scheduled to meet and recommend the dissolution of the 17th Lok Sabha.
A Cabinet note will be moved by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and once the body sends its recommendation to President Droupadi Murmu, she will dissolve the current lower house of Parliament. Ms Murmu will be given a list of elected MPs by the Election Commission of India and she will then begin the process of constituting the 18th Lok Sabha.
As per procedure, the President will call the single largest pre-poll party formation, which will be the NDA - on course to win 292 seats - in this case. The NDA will then have to prove its majority on the floor of the house within a certain time period, which could be a month or even less.
Even as the BJP, which is leading in 239 seats (a combination of leads and wins), has expressed confidence that it will form the next government, the Congress and other INDIA allies have reportedly reached out to Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar.
Mr Naidu's TDP looks set to win 16 seats while Mr Kumar's JDU is on course to get 12, and the parties will be crucial for both sides in their attempts to form the next government.
While Sharad Pawar, the chief of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), has refuted reports of him reaching out to the leaders, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has dropped a hint about "new partners".
The TDP-BJP alliance was firmed up just before the elections and, even before counting began, experts had speculated that Mr Naidu could switch sides if he saw more benefits with the INDIA bloc. The TDP was part of the United Progressive Alliance in 2019.
Nitish Kumar's association with the Congress is even more recent and he had played a pivotal role in the creation of the INDIA bloc, before joining the NDA once again in January. The Bihar chief minister had also snapped ties with the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections because the party had declared Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate.
Both the NDA and INDIA are set to hold meetings in New Delhi tomorrow.
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