A day after Union Home Minister amit shah announced that a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would be implemented in all 21 NDA-ruled states before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2029, most alliance partners came out in support of the move. A few other NDA allies, however, adopted a cautious approach while the JD(U) made it clear that it would not allow any such move in Bihar. The TDP, on which the BJP-led NDA depends for a majority in Parliament and which has a significant Muslim vote bank in Andhra Pradesh, expressed support for the move, as did the Shiv sena and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular). “We will be supporting it,” Lavu Krishna Devarayalu, leader of TDP in the Lok Sabha, told The Indian Express . “As of now, there is no discussion. But whenever we find the need for it, we will be looking into it. We will definitely involve various stakeholders before we adopt it,” Krishna said. The TDP and the JD(U), which also has a sizeable Muslim vote bank in Bihar, had earlier opposed any legislation without adequate consultation, but the TDP appears to have since softened its stand on the issue. “It (UCC) is very much needed in a country like India, which has different religions and cultures,” said a TDP leader. Before the TDP joined the NDA following the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which brought down the BJP’s tally to 240 from 303 in 2019, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister n Chandrababu Naidu had said that when it “comes to a UCC, the TDP will stand with the Muslim community”. In Andhra Pradesh, of the total population of 8,45,80,777, Hindus accounted for 7,48,24,149, or over 88%, while Muslims numbered 80,82,412, or almost 10%, according to the 2011 Census. In Patna, JD(U) leader and former state minister Shyam Rajak reiterated on Monday that the party favours the Bill at the national level, but not in Bihar. JD(U) leader and former chief minister Nitish Kumar had previously underlined the need for broad national consensus on the issue before its implementation. Rajak told reporters: “When this Bill came to Parliament, our leader (Nitish Kumar) was clear: that we support it but will not let it be implemented in our state (Bihar). We stand by this.” Asked about the party’s stand, senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha said the party will take up the issue with the BJP’s national leadership. “We will discuss it with the Home Minister,” Jha, who is also national working president of the party, told The Indian Express. Another Bihar ally, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), has always maintained that it will evaluate the potential impact and legal framework once a blueprint or draft bill on the issue is presented to it. Shah’s latest remarks came three months after the BJP swept the elections in West Bengal, where the previous TMC government had vehemently opposed the UCC. On Monday, BJP Bengal president Shamik Bhattacharya said the party’s state government will initiate the process for the passage and implementation of the law as soon as possible. “We are going to introduce the UCC, it’s not a hidden agenda for us. BJP, since its inception, has been holding it as one of its priorities and now it’s our moral duty to fulfil it. A large section of the population is also keen to see that a uniform civil code is implemented in the state,” Bhattacharya told The Indian Express . However, the BJP’s new Bengal ally, Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), formed of MPs who have broken away from the Trinamool Congress, said the party, which has 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha, would have to deliberate on the issue. “We heard that the NDA-ruled states are going to implement it. It’s a serious issue which needs a lot of thinking and deliberation. We will do that once a proposal is made. We will have discussions before taking a stand,” party leader and senior MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told The Indian Express. The 2011 Census puts West Bengal’s total population at 9,12,76,115, of which Hindus constitute 6,43,85,546, or over 70%, and Muslims, at 2,46,54,825, account for a little over 27%.