Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge today claimed that the NDA government has been formed by mistake and could fall at any time. His remarks come days after there was speculation that the Bharatiya Janata Party was struggling to keep its alliances.
"NDA government has been formed by mistake. Modi ji doesn't have the mandate. It's a minority government. This government can fall anytime," Mr Kharge told reporters in Bengaluru.
"We would like it to continue, let it be good for the country, we should work together to strengthen the country," he added.
The NDA won 293 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP, which enjoyed a handsome majority in the previous two terms, secured only 240 seats, way behind the 272 mark needed to form a government.
The four allies whose support helped the BJP form the government for a record third term are N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP, which has won 16 seats, Nitish Kumar's JDU (12), Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena (7) and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (5).
Mr Kharge's jibe at the coalition government received a swift response from NDA leaders.
Janata Dal (United)'s leader asked Mr Kharge for the scorecards of prime ministers when the Congress had formed coalition governments.
In the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, Congress won a similar number of seats as the BJP did in 2024. Without a clear majority, Congress formed a minority government under PV Narasimha Rao. Mr Rao then engineered a split into smaller parties, turning a minority Congress into a majority party within two years.
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