Unlike BJP and Congress, losing an election in a state can ring a death knell for a regional party. Remember BSP? Ensuring electoral success in their region is key to survival for such parties. What they need is a trans-state narrative. Regional party coalitions are more often than not built for instability as each constituent seeks to drive the coalition. Congress and BJP have both served as convening powers and provided stable, if not always performing, governments. With Congress suffering the longest electoral slump, regional parties with better electoral performance see no reason to put Congress in the driver’s seat. But there is certainly good reason to have the GOP in the car.
Rather than becoming yet another member of a coalition, Congress should utilise its ‘distribution’ network, currently weak across many states but certainly there, unlike that of geographically confined – and, often, geographically defined – parties. Even successful coalitions like NDA 1 or UPA 1 and 2 were hobbled by divergent interests, sometimes leading to the notorious ‘policy paralysis’ and ‘coalition compulsions’. In this critical decade, what India needs most is a government with national stakes and imagination. Warts and all, Congress and BJP are right now the only parties that qualify. The Opposition could certainly do with a Congress ‘infra’.