National Pradesh

This dominance of regional parties has been a reality of Indian politics for over two decades now,and shows what a strong,rich and variegated undertaking our democracy is. In this case,the depleted appeal of the BJP and Congress added to the SPs fortunes. The SP also shed some of its older baggage,with Akhilesh Yadav owning up to the partys administrative mistakes and promising to do it differently this time,and actually sounding credible. He also helped the party transcend its out-of-touch ideas about English education,technology,etc. The SP managed to adjust its pitch to the changed facts about Uttar Pradesh a feat that the BJP and Congress failed at. Because their heads were full of old calculations about caste and community,they were busy wooing various sections of the electorate and finessing their message to each,losing sight of the common,emerging,story in the state. Regional parties dont have that narrow,perspectival vision,and they dont patronise the electorate,because they belong to that context.

This election is proof that if the national parties ever hope to step up their game in Uttar Pradesh which they both do,given its outsized national influence they will have to contest as insiders,grounded in the grievances and aspirations of the state. They will have to be regional forces themselves,first.