NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: Regional parties in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alliance demanded on Thursday more funds for their states and federal cabinet positions as negotiations began on forming a new coalition government, alliance leaders and sources said.
Modi was named leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Wednesday, after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its outright majority in India’s parliamentary election and found itself reliant on support from regional parties — mainly the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United).
The NDA won 293 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 constitutes a simple majority.
But Modi’s BJP won only 240, making TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) head Nitish Kumar, also the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, kingmakers in the alliance with their 16 and 12 seats respectively.
TDP also won a regional election in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and Naidu is set to become chief minister there.
“We’re still in discussions and one thing we’re clear on is Naidu wants to maintain a very good relationship with the center (federal government) because our priority is state development and interest,” senior TDP leader Kutumba Rao told Reuters.
Both parties are pushing longstanding demands to grant special status to their states, according to one TDP spokesperson and five NDA sources.
Special status allows states to receive more federal development funds, and on simpler terms. While Bihar is India’s poorest state, Andhra Pradesh lost some of its resources in 2014 when the new state of Telangana was carved out of it.
Besides special status and cabinet positions, TDP is also seeking more funds for irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh and to complete the building of its new capital, Amaravati, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
“This is not the first time we are in NDA, so we are confident that we will get what is due to us,” TDP spokesperson Jyothsna Tirunagari said.
“In our earlier terms with NDA, we had ministerial berths and also the Lok Sabha [lower house] speaker from our party. This time we are a strong partner and share a clear vision for the country,” she said.
JD(U)’s Kumar also wants support for new industrial projects in Bihar along with federal cabinet positions, one NDA source said.
COALITION NEGOTIATIONS
Top BJP leaders held talks about ministerial portfolios with the allies on Thursday, a day before Modi is expected to meet President Droupadi Murmu to present his claim to form the next government, one BJP source said.
Modi is expected to be sworn in over the weekend and local media reported that leaders of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Mauritius and the king of Bhutan have been invited to attend the inauguration.
The coalition negotiations are a throwback to an era before 2014 — when Modi swept to power with an outright BJP majority — in which alliance partners haggled for positions and benefits in exchange for their support.
The BJP’s loss of its majority unnerved markets and raised the prospect of a government less stable and sure-footed than the outgoing one.
But Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a top BJP leader and newly elected lawmaker, told the CNN-News18 TV channel that Modi’s new government would last its full five-year term and “come back with a better performance.”
A survey published on Thursday suggested that a lack of jobs, high inflation and falling income had cost Modi votes, even though he personally still commanded wide support.
Some 30 percent of voters said they were worried about inflation, compared to 20 percent prior to the election, according to the Lokniti-CSDS post-election survey published by the Hindu newspaper.
In a survey for the Hindu conducted before the election, unemployment had been the main concern of 32 percent of respondents.
Decreasing income and the government’s handling of corruption and fraud were other issues of concern, according to the survey.
Modi’s allies want funds, cabinet jobs as India coalition talks begin
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Modi’s allies want funds, cabinet jobs as India coalition talks begin
- Modi was named leader of the National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday, after his BJP party lost outright majority in India’s parliamentary election
- BJP leaders held talks with allies on Thursday, a day before Modi is expected to meet President Droupadi Murmu to present his claim to form government
Thailand heads to polls with voters demanding ‘real change’
- Millennials, Generation Z make up around 46.5 percent of Thailand’s eligible voters
- Voters will also decide on whether to rewrite current military-backed constitution
BANGKOK: Thai voters will head to the polls on Sunday after cycling through three prime ministers in less than three years, with the three-way contest of major parties set to decide the leader of the Southeast Asian nation over the next four years.
For the first time in the country’s history, nearly 53 million eligible voters in the kingdom of 71 million people will choose 500 lawmakers and also decide whether to rewrite the constitution.
The snap election was called in December by Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s third premier since the 2023 election, who dissolved the House of Representatives to preempt a looming no-confidence vote.
More than 5,000 candidates from 57 parties are registered to take part in the polls, which will directly elect 400 lawmakers based on constituencies, while 100 others will be chosen from “party list” nominees, who gain seats according to each party’s proportional share of the vote.
Together, they will constitute the 500 members of the House of Representatives who will select the prime minister.
“This election is a gamble on the future of Thailand. Over the past decade, I have never seen the country move backward as much as it has,” Lawan Sarovat, a 60-year-old resident of Bangkok, told Arab News.
Thailand has been struggling with prolonged political uncertainty and a series of challenges, including an economy stuck at about 2 percent growth for the past five years and a border conflict with Cambodia last year that killed more than 100 people and cost at least $436 million.
“We want to see change. We had hoped that the previous election would bring about real change, but that did not happen. This time, people must try to make their voices heard in every possible way,” Sarovat said.
Main contenders
Sunday’s vote pits incumbent Prime Minister Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai party, which is backed by Thailand’s royalist conservative establishment, with the progressive youth-led People’s Party and Pheu Thai, a once-dominant party associated with now-jailed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
A nationwide survey by the National Institute of Development Administration put People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut in first place for prime minister at over 29 percent, followed by Anutin at more than 22 percent.
The People’s Party was also a leading choice in terms of party preference, chosen by more than 33.5 percent of the January survey’s 2,500 respondents, while Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai came second and third with about 22.7 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively.
The People’s Party is the successor to the group that won the last election — Move Forward — but was blocked from power, despite winning the greatest number of seats in the House of Representatives with the support of 14 million Thais.
It was eventually dissolved by the Constitutional Court over its proposals to revise the country’s strict royal insult laws.
“Elections in Thailand are not simply about citizens voting to choose a government. They are surrounded by multiple factors,” Thai senator Tewarit Maneechai told Arab News.
Even after securing popular support, Thai political parties must gain acceptance from a network of independent bodies established under the current constitution, including the Senate, the Constitutional Court, and the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
These institutions, Maneechai said, continue to function as mechanisms of the old power structure that has dominated Thailand’s political direction since the 2014 military coup.
Under this system, even an elected government can be removed from office at any time. Maneechai pointed to the case of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, ex-premier from the Pheu Thai Party, who was removed from office in August 2025 following a ruling by the Constitutional Court — a decision that raised public concerns over the expanding authority of independent agencies.
“There are surrounding factors that determine whether a government can actually be formed. Political parties that are able to govern are those that operate within the rules designed by the group that came to power through the coup,” Maneechai said.
Constitutional referendum
On Sunday, voters will also decide if a new constitution should replace a military-backed 2017 charter.
The ballot will simply ask voters if they “approve that there should be a new constitution,” with options of “Yes,” “No,” or “No opinion.”
The referendum needs more than 17 million votes in favor to become “a mandate that the entire country must heed,” Maneechai said.
“The referendum matters because even if a party wins the election, its ability to remain in power ultimately depends on independent mechanisms under the current constitution, which have the authority to remove a prime minister and destabilize a government.”
Though a majority “Yes” would kickstart a multi-stage drafting process, it will require two more referendums before a new charter could be adopted.
Change vs. status quo
Jamza Jongkham is among many Thai voters hoping that the election will lead to a constitutional reform.
“Right now, Thai politics is operating under rules controlled by an authoritarian camp that dominates the entire system, overriding political parties elected by the people,” he told Arab News.
The 27-year-old said what happened to the Move Forward party in 2023 was “fundamentally unfair,” and despite anger at how powerful politicians misuse power, he still has hopes in the younger generation.
Together, millennials and Generation Z make up around 46.5 percent of Thailand’s eligible voters.
“I still believe that people’s voices matter. If we choose to remain silent and do not exercise our right to vote, I believe Thailand will only become worse. There are still many people who want to see this country move in a better direction,” he said.
“If we can change the system so that everyone can participate in politics on an equal footing, I believe Thailand would become a far more just society.”
Puangthong Pawakapan, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said Sunday’s vote is unlikely to serve as a decisive turning point in Thai politics, but rather reflect “an increasingly intense political struggle” between the public and entrenched power structures.
“This election has divided both those in power and the public into two clear sides — those who want change and those who want to preserve the status quo,” she told Arab News.
“Today, the public clearly sees that Thailand’s political and economic problems are rooted in an old power structure that is extremely difficult to change.”
