coalition

A coalition is a group of two or more political parties that agree to work together, typically to form a government when no single party wins a majority on its own.

• Under First-Past-the-Post, it's common for no party to cross the halfway mark of seats alone, especially in a country as regionally diverse as India — coalitions are often how workable governments still get formed.
• Forming a coalition usually means negotiating shared priorities and sometimes sharing cabinet positions between the partner parties, since each brings its own base of support and demands to the table.
• Coalition governments can be more fragile than single-party ones, since a partner withdrawing support can threaten the government's majority — but they can also reflect a wider range of regional and social interests than one party alone might represent.
• The same logic scales down to state governments too: a coalition winning a majority of seats in a state assembly forms the state government, with its leader becoming chief minister, just as at the national level.