India, June 23 -- With six Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena (UBT) joining the Shiv Sena on Monday, another anti-BJP regional party has fallen to a palace coup. The Sena (UBT) defections follow the implosion of the Trinamool Congress after its loss in West Bengal. What does one make of these developments? This question can be answered from three perspectives.

The first is of immediate parliamentary interest. The NDA is closing in on the two-thirds majority threshold in Parliament with these defections. To be sure, it is still 41 and nine seats short of the required numbers in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. However, the momentum has decisively shifted from a couple of months ago, when it had to withdraw the clubbed legislations for women's r...