Constitutional amendment bills in parliament require a two-thirds majority. When the NDA government introduced such a bill in April, it fell far short of the required numbers. However, recent events have changed the numbers game.
The seasonal session of parliament will begin soon. Now, after the party split, the NDA appears to be in a strong position. At the same time, the size of the opposition alliance INDIA has decreased slightly. While the ruling NDA is still a long way from achieving a two-thirds majority, it could get very close if it manages to win two more parties in the Lok Sabha. Let’s understand this numbers game in detail.
If all 540 sitting Lok Sabha MPs are present and voting, a two-thirds majority would require 360 votes. When the Constitution Amendment Bill was introduced in April, 548 Lok Sabha members voted in the House. Of these, 298 were for, 230 were against. At the same time, 11 deputies were absent. This brought the two-thirds majority figure down to 352.
Where did the numbers go after the party split?
20 Trinamool Congress MPs have joined hands with the National Civic Party of India. The party supports the NDA and has asked for a separate seat in the House. At the same time, 6 MPs from the Shiv Sena UBT joined hands with the Shiv Sena included in the NDA. Due to this, the alliance reached 319. However, the majority mark of 360 is still far away.
Realize the power of opposition
The INDIA alliance, which reached 225 numbers after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has suffered a big blow due to the recent split in the parties. With the departure of 26 MPs, the opposition’s strength in the Lok Sabha has been reduced to 199. At the same time, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with 22 deputies also distanced itself from this alliance. In fact, after the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the distance between the Congress and the DMK has widened.
The largest party in the INDIAN Alliance is the Congress with 98 MPs. At the same time after this there is Samajwadi Party with 37 MPs. Before the break, TMC was in third place in this list. At the same time, the Shiv Sena UBT was in fourth place, but now the figure has changed.
How can NDA obtain data?
The role of the five independent MPs becomes important in this campaign. In fact, Amritpal Singh and Sheikh Abdul Rashid are in jail. Now if NDA gets support from YSRCP which has 4 MPs. At the same time, if some negotiations are reached with the Nationalist Congress Party, SP and DMK, then the NDA can win.
In simple terms, Sharad Pawar’s faction consists of 8 MPs, while the DMK has 22 MPs. If both these parties abstain from voting, the majority figure will come down to 330. With the help of Independents and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party, ND will get 9 more votes, but even after that, 2 more votes will be required.