Poll takeout: Regional parties have to reinvent themselves

By Jai Mrug The election results of May 13 have a very important message for votaries of regional and identity politics: You must have a value proposition for your constituency that justifies your existence. In fact this applies to national parties  as well, especially those that do not have a fortified regional leadeiship. The rout of the PMK and the AGP in Tamil Nadu and Assam  are particularly symbolic. For AGP, this is the third consecutive defeat in a row since 2001. The PMK’s vote base first came under suspicion in 2009 and is now still more suspect. The PMK has won just 3 seats out of the 30 it contested in an alliance with the DMK, which is a strike rate of 10% — far poorer than the strike rate of its senior partner, the DMK. [caption id=“attachment_9730” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”]  [/caption] Importantly, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the PMK could not lead in a single assembly segment. The AGP also led merely in 16 assembly segments in 2009. Both the parties continued to perform poorly in 2011. This, inspite of having contested the most number of seats or having bargained for a good number from their allies. This raises a larger question on whether regional parties can continue to survive once some of the necessary conditions for upward mobility of their constituencies have been taken care of, or if they find an alternative leadership outside the construct they have already built. In Tamil Nadu, from the days of the Vanniyars agitating for reservation, the number of Vanniyars undertaking professional courses has increased five-fold. Other enhanced indicators of mobility imply that the need for collective political bargaining is reduced. Similarly for the AGP, with the ULFA willing to break bread with a Congress dispensation , the average Ahomiya has started seeing the Congress government as a political formation they can live with and as an agent of peace. In Tamil Nadu, while the Congress was gung ho about its Youth Congress recruitment drive, it could not bank on a credible face within the party to accelerate growth. Friday’s results bear this chilling message for regional parties that want to grow in a federal framework. You need to continuously restate and rejuvenate your message to your core constituency. Above all, one needs a positive programme beyond caste and parochial politics. And the brand ambassador of this programme has to be your credible leader who would have a continuous dialogue with your constituency. This applies equally to regional and national parties. Jai Mrug is an keen election watcher and political analyst.