BJP Offers Union Cabinet Berths to NCP Factions to Strengthen Numbers in Parliament

With the BJP stepping up its efforts to muster up the numbers in Parliament for the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bills on rolling out the Women’s Reservation Act and the Delimitation Bill, the party leadership has suggested that the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) reunite and become an alliance partner in the NDA instead of either group merging with the ruling party, it is learnt. Highly placed sources said the BJP leadership offered two Union Cabinet berths to balance the power equations on both sides — the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) if both agree to merge into one party. Sources said the BJP’s top leadership was keen on retaining the NCP as a separate entity in the NDA. “The leadership has objected to the idea of our allies merging with the BJP. Politically, the NCP remaining as a party will help us to consolidate the non-Brahmin and Maratha votes in Maharashtra,” said an insider. The source said the top leadership was also cautious about not weakening the BJP’s allies. The leadership’s stance also comes against the backdrop of growing uneasiness among sections in the party about what is seen as the “sidelining” of long-time workers. While preliminary discussions have already taken place, the plan has not yet taken final shape, sources said. They explained that everything depends on the ongoing struggle in the NCP between Sunetra Pawar, the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, and veteran leaders. Sunetra’s elder son Parth, a Rajya Sabha MP, wants his mother to hold the finance portfolio in the Maharashtra government — Ajit Pawar held the portfolio, but it went to Devendra Fadnavis following the NCP leader’s death in January — and the NCP national president post in the event of a merger. However, senior leaders such as NCP state president Sunil Tatkare, working president Praful Patel, and Chhagan Bhujbal want power-sharing to be more inclusive. “There will be issues if they insist on having a Cabinet portfolio, the state finance ministry, and the national president post, as the other side (NCP-SP) is unlikely to agree,” said a source. The NCP’s entry into the NDA will bring the Narendra Modi government closer to a two-thirds majority in Parliament, which is a requirement for the passage of Constitutional amendment bills. The government has been trying to cobble up the numbers for the passage of the Constitutional amendment Bills to roll out the women’s reservation law and expand the strength of Parliament and state legislatures through the Delimitation Bill. The government’s attempts had been defeated in a special session of the Lower House of Parliament in April. Since then, 37 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from four Opposition parties have defected to the ruling side, making it the largest floor-crossing from the Opposition to the Treasury side in Parliament since the enactment of the anti-defection law in 1985. With three vacancies, the current strength of the Lok Sabha is 540, including two MPs who are in jail, making the two-thirds mark 360. In April, when 528 MPs voted, the two-thirds mark was 352. The government had then secured the support of 298 MPs and the Opposition got 230 votes. The NDA had 293 MPs in the Lok Sabha at the time, and after the splits in the Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), its tally is now 319. If the NCP (SP) supports the Bill, the NDA tally will go up to 327, 33 short of the two-thirds mark, with the BJP hoping to bridge the gap with support from more parties and abstentions by some. Government sources have said the NCP (SP) is likely to back the Delimitation Bill if the government incorporates the proposed 50% pro-rata model.