Kingmakers Left High And Dry

As it is clear from the early trends that the BJP is heading towards forming the government single-handedly, there is no likelihood of regional parties playing the role of kingmakers in the current scenario.

In fact, BJP seems all set to form the government on its own, without even requiring the help of its National Democratic Alliance partners like Akali Dal and Shiv Sena.

BJP was leading in 271 constituencies in the initial trends and its other NDA partners – TDP, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and LJP – leading in 16, 17, four and five seats, respectively.

As on 12 March 2014, there are 1616 parties registered with the election commission, out of which the numbers of national parties was six and that of state parties was 47.

Just after independence, in the 1950s and 60s, the Congress party dominated the national political scene. But the opposition started gaining some space during late 60s and early 70s, with the Janata Party even wresting power from the Congress in 1977. This event set the ball rolling for the mushrooming of a number of small parties.

Most small parties are one-man shows, who exercise absolute control over the party. While the coming up of new parties reflects more democratisation, these have tended to become internally less democratic. Leaders like Jayalalitha, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Naveen Patnaik and Lalu Prasad Yadav have been running their respective parties single-handedly, without giving much room to internal dissent.

Even in the run up to the 2014 elections, they were widely projected to play the role of kingmakers. But all these parties would be left high and dry if these initial trends get converted into results.