With his election as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi now starts to walk on the Agneepath, or, a path of fire. He is a decisive leader who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat for three consecutive terms and later the Prime Minister for two terms. And he did so with an absolute majority for his party in the bag. As the leader of the Cabinet, he did what he wanted to do, never constrained by the support of allies. But now, for the first time, he will lead a government in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have a majority of its own and is dependent on the support of its allies.

The BJP has only 240 seats, 32 short of the majority mark of 272. The party had 282 seats in 2014 and 303 in 2019. On both occasions, the BJP was supported by allies, and together, the NDA had 353 MPs in the 17th Parliament. An absolute majority for any party in the Lok Sabha ensures that the party and the government will have smooth functioning without any fetters; it's not dependent on others for policy formulation and its implementation. But a coalition government, by its nature, is full of contradictions and is always constrained by the support of its allies.

Coalition government, by its own logic, is always uncertain and unstable; wide-ranging consultation is the lifeblood of such governments. Prime Minister Modi is not known to believe in........

© NDTV