Hung ! The rise of regional politics

The hung has never been good to anyone, anywhere. It can be the assembly or the parliament elections the hung has always hanged the country and its people with the slow pace of economic activity. The evolving of regional parties at the centre began with the logger head attitude of both the two main national parties the Congress and the BJP, the stand as of now is they are personal enemies and not political opponents. This has given enough space for regional players to enter the arena at the cost of these two parties. The Congress never considered BJP a potential party to lead the country till the BJP took over the mantle in 1999.

With the first BJP led government at the centre a lot of plum ministries were offered to people with minimal experience in handling them as there was no alternative. The formation of a stable alternative government by the BJP at the centre was the beginning of a new innings for the regional players at the central level. Having tasted blood during United Front government run by Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral and again with the BJP led NDA government, the regional parties were keen for active participation in central politics.

There was no agenda or ideology as such with any regional party it was open opportunism at its peak as they could go with anyone who is at the power. The parties and the people who hailed BJP as the party capable of providing stable alternative government like the LJP of Ram Vilas Paswan’s, the DMK of Karunanidhi’s and the National Conference of the Abdullah’s are the same ones who left the BJP camp after their honeymoon of 5 years accusing them of communalism and moved to the Congress when the Congress formed the government. These regional parties extract everything possible from the centre during their stay with them like granting of major sanctions to the ruling states of the regional parties, to supporting their party candidates in local election, to supporting their own economic plans which could be disaster to the national party. The regional parties have three different very encouraging options at every post election. They are “go with the BJP mentioning the Congress as a family or foreign party” or “go with Congress mentioning the BJP as communal party” or “go with the nonexistent Third party mentioning both the BJP and Congress as anti poor parties”.

After all the compromise the only thing left for the BJP and the Congress is a pathetic national image and an erosion of their vote bank. As they spend less on nation building and more on convincing their regional allies the nation has no great hopes on either of the two and their own popularity rating is on a downward spiral. The BJP and the Congress are way down from their peak popularity and they are trying to build it back but the tide seems to have passed. Never before has the Congress party not shown the doors to anyone who disagreed with the high command but things have changed now and Congress party is now open to readmitting and forgiving people who openly blasted the high command. The BJP which once stood for a party with a clean image is now open to anyone who assures a victory.

This time around is not going to be any different and it is bound to be a hung parliament with the BJP and Congress at the doorsteps of regional heads once the poll outcome is out. With every party openly proclaiming their party chief’s as their PM candidate from Mulayam to Mayawati to Sharad Pawar to Lalu Prasad as their PM candidate, India is left with no options than asking “Jamal” from Slumdog Millionaire for the correct answer.