As BJP rises, sun may set on regional parties

READ ALSO: BJP single-largest party in Maharashtra, NCP offers unexpected ‘outside support’ It all started with the coming together of Janata Dal, BJP and Left in the V P Singh experiment in much less regionalized times of the late eighties. The pattern held in Congress support for a ragtag Janata Dal splinter under Chandra Shekhar and later with the advent of the BJP-led NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Congress followed suit with its own version of UPA for a decade. But in 2014, a giant leap under Narendra Modi to a majority government for the BJP, the first in 30 years, and now the growing saffron footprint across states, raises the possibility of a return to nationalization of a regionalized polity. Is it back to the era of one-party rule a la Congress before the 1990s?BJPModiAssamJharkhandPM Narendra Modi with BJP president Amit Shah during the party's parliamentary board meeting on assembly polls results, at the party headquarters in New Delhi. (PTI Photo) Haryanapre-BabriBJPBiharUttarBJPAfterallBiharLokSabhaREAD ALSO: BJP’s tally zooms from 4 to 47 in Haryana, party to form govtturfsWith Congress shrinking, BJP’s gains could only come from the marginalization of regional parties. If BJP has edged out Shiv Sena (Maharashtra) and INLD (Haryana), parties that have played a crucial role in BJP governments, any success in revival in Bihar and UP would mean weakening or decimation of RJD, JD(U), SP and BSP that have been indispensable to Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA in the past.If the regionalization of national politics became a reality, it was because of the phenomenal growth of local outfits that made them indispensable to the Lok Sabha arithmetic. Think of it like this: Modi’s BJP does not need either AIADMK or DMK that have been a regular feature in central coalitions in the last two decades.Not that the opportunity is unique to Modi. When Congress decimated all and sundry to return an unexpected tally of 206 MPs in 2009, it was positioned perfectly to revive itself in the Hindi heartland. The enthusiasm for Rahul Gandhi in UP and Bihar made it appear that the mission was waiting to be accomplished. But it bungled owing to bad strategy and hubris, in what is now seen as a decade of lost opportunities.Opportunity rarely knocks twice. As Congress stares at a possibly prolonged hibernation, BJP seems eager to succeed where the rival failed. READ ALSO: Owaisi’s MIM gets 2 seats, Raj Thackeray’s MNS just 1