As PM Modi’s third term gets underway, the big question: Can he turn a coalition to his advantage?

With Narendra Modi elected Prime Minister for the third straight time, this time at the head of a coalition government, the question uppermost on people’s minds as he took the oath of office and secrecy at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday was: Can Modi be a coalition-builder?

Atal Bihari Vajpayee ran coalitions during his prime ministership in 1996, 1998, and 1999. Modi on the other hand has always run majority governments, in Gujarat (2001 to 2014) and nationally for the last 10 years. The results on June 4 exactly did not go as per the PM’s expectations but he had recovered by the next evening when he addressed his Cabinet colleagues. The PM is believed to have told them he would run a coalition government successfully and fulfil the “coalition dharma”. Those who were with him came away with the feeling that the PM had taken up running a coalition government as a challenge and was determined to prove his sceptics wrong.

Modi’s new Cabinet signals continuity as well as caution. He has retained many of his old and experienced ministerial colleagues to show that the situation is politically stable—and he is in control of it. He does not want to risk any rumblings from within his party just when he is trying to stabilise a new situation with the allies.

The TDP (16 MPs) and the Janata Dal-United (12) have emerged as key players, and it would be surprising if they were not moving in step. Both of them have long governance experience in the United Front governments and the NDA government headed by Vajpayee.

Chandrababu Naidu has always been a sober player and is looking for a financial package for his state and its capital Amaravati. Yet — and this is curious — he has agreed to only one Cabinet Ministerial berth and one Minister of