The election results in five Indian states were stunning and a major blow to the Congress party. Some key outcomes: 1) In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav won a majority, pushing the BSP into second place and BJP and Congress further behind. 2) In Punjab, the incumbent Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance was the first in 46 years to retain power, defeating anti-incumbency trends. 3) The BJP emerged as the largest party in both Goa and Uttarakhand, though Uttarakhand may have a hung assembly. 4) Only

1. Government may cancel Kingfisher Airlines: Ajit Singh
NEW DELHI: Government may cancel Kingfisher Airlines' licence if safety norms and financial viability
conditions are not met, aviation minister Ajit Singh told reporters on Tuesday.
The cash-strapped carrier, which is now operating 18 planes, has failed to stick to its recovery plan, Singh
said.
Kingfisher Airlines, which has a debt of $1.3 billion, is facing collapse as banks have refused to lend more for
day-to-day operations.
MUMBAI: Shares in beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines tumbled close to a record low early on Tuesday on fears
that the debt-laden carrier could lose its flying licence.
The firm dived 11.9 percent to 17.7 rupees in early trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange, close to their all-
time-low of 17.55 rupees reached in November.
The regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has summoned Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya for
a meeting on Tuesday in New Delhi to discuss its future, media reports said Tuesday. "We have summoned the
airline chief to explain his position," India's civil aviation regulator Bharat Bhushan said, according to a
newspaper.
Kingfisher has been forced to cancel flights because of a strike by pilots and other operational difficulties,
running around 100 flights a day instead of its scheduled 175.
A spokesman for the airline declined to comment on the reported meeting with the DGCA on Tuesday.
In an separate development Anil Kumar Ganguly, an independent director, quit the Kingfisher board on health
grounds -- the second director to exit within a week.
The announcement comes just days after former tennis star and sports commentator Vijay Amritraj left the
company due to an "increase in his travel schedule and commitments".
Ganguly's exit means that all the independent directors of the firm have now quit in the past six months.
Kingfisher last week announced it was cutting some of its overseas flights in order to reduce costs.
Its bank accounts have been frozen by Indian authorities due to the non-payment of taxes and it has been
dropped by a vital global payments and booking system run by the International Air Transport Association
(IATA).
The carrier has never turned a profit since its launch in 2005 and owes millions of dollars to suppliers, lenders
and staff.
Mallya has promised a full recovery plan for the carrier shortly and a solution to the ongoing pilots' row.

2. Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was today elevated to Cabinet rank to take over as Railway
Minister replacing Dinesh Trivedi, who was forced to resign after the Congress caved in to Mamata
Banerjee's pressure.
Widely expected to rollback at least the lower class passenger fare hike proposed by Trivedi in the Railway
Budget, Roy, 57, was sworn in as Cabinet minister at a special but brief ceremony by President Pratibha
Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
He was currently serving as Union Minister of State for Shipping and had earlier served as Minister of
State in the Railway Ministry before Trivedi took over last July.
The ceremony was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the UPA
chairperson and Cabinet ministers including ministers of Tinamool Congress.
Trivedi was forced out by Trinamool Congress after he incurred the wrath of party chief and West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was opposed to his proposal to increase fares in the Railway Budget
last Wednesday. Trivedi resigned on Sunday.
The Congress leadership caved in to the Trinamool demand for replacing him with Roy.
Yesterday, Mamata had indicated that the hike in the lower class fares proposed in the Railway Budget
may be rolled back.

3. KOLKATA: A bodyguard of Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar allegedly urinated on two
passengers on the Rajdhani Express early on Monday. He then pulled out his service revolver and threatened
them into silence.
Aryak Dutta, one of the passengers, is a Calcutta high court lawyer. He could not name the policeman in his
complaint since he was listed as 'MP's attendant' on the AC-II coach. Kakoli was in a first class coach with her
dog. She did not take any calls. Late Monday night, she sent an SMS saying, "Nothing happened." Dutta said, "I
was going to Allahabad with a client. The man occupying berth 19 said he was Dastidar's security guard. He
said the MP was in an AC-I coupe."
Dutta was sleeping on the upper berth when, around 2am, he was woken by some movement. "The policeman
was standing nearby, drunk. He was urinating on my client who was on the lower berth. My client cried out and
I pushed the policeman lightly. He lost his balance but straightened up and continued to urinate on his legs and
my luggage," said Dutta.'
The cop then whipped out a revolver. "My client was livid and demanded the policeman to clean up. I advised
him not to quarrel with an armed man. Other passengers had woken up by then. We called out to the TTE and
the coach attendant," Dutta said. Dutta and his client wrote in the complaint book and later filed an FIR at
Allahabad station.
Railway officials said they do not know if the passenger mentioned in the complaint is a policeman. "We
haven't yet seen the complaint as the train has not yet returned from New Delhi. We have spoken to the train
staff and they confirmed a complaint was lodged. We don't know whether he was a policeman. He was
registered as an attendant to the MP. It is alleged that he misbehaved with other passengers," a railway official
in Kolkata said.
Dutta claimed his client's clothes and their luggage were spoilt. Dastidar, who is in Delhi, refused to take calls
but replied to an SMS requesting her to comment on the matter. Allahabad GRP sources confirmed they had
received a complaint against a Rajdhani passenger travelling on berth 19 of the AC-II tier coach.
MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar was in a Ist class coach with her dog. She did not take any calls. Late on Monday,
she sent an SMS saying, "Nothing happened."

4. History was written or rewritten in different ways in every state that went to the polls to elect a new
Assembly in the last few weeks, and in all except one, the Congress was the biggest loser.
Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi party came to power in Uttar Pradesh, the politically most important state
in the country, on its own for the first time. The Akali Dal-BJP combine in Punjab came back to power in
Punjab, the first time a government has beaten the anti-incumbency sentiment in decades in that state. The
BJP will form a government in Goa for the first time on its own strength. Uttarakhand will get a hung Assembly
for the first time in its history. The Congress swept to power in Manipur, again setting a record, though the
victory on the edge of India’s political map is poor consolation for the party for the setbacks elsewhere.
The best trophy was taken by the Samajwadi Party, which completely appropriated and benefitted from the
popular sentiment against the Mayawati government. The BJP continued its dismal show in the state. The
hype created around Rahul Gandhi’s high- voltage campaign came to nothing in terms of seats. The party may
have slightly improved its vote share, but the hopes of a political revival it had for UP are in tatters.
Its poor performance has also raised questions about Rahul Gandhi’s ability to win elections for the party. The
BJP’s relatively better performance in Uttarakhand does not lessen the gravity of its failure in UP. Even in
Uttarakhand, the hung Assembly is actually a mark of the BJP’s failure, because it had actually ruled the state.
In Punjab the ruling alliance has come back to power, but the BJP lost some seats, and the victory was on the
back of Akali Dal’s strength. The Congress, which had an opportunity to win in Punjab, has only itself to blame
for losing it. The verdict in Goa, where the BJP won impressively, was a resounding rejection of a government
which was steeped in corruption.
There may be a number of local and specific reasons for the way the people gave their verdict in every state.
But running through all of them were common themes also. These were strong sentiments against corruption
and rejection of caste and communalism as the sole determinants of electoral behaviour, not just in a literate
state like Goa but also in a socially backward polity like UP’s. The voter has spoken with one voice and how.
To describe Tuesday's election results as stunning would be an understatement given that incredible stories have
emerged in at least three of the five States that went to the polls over the past six weeks. Overall, the verdict
dealt a devastating blow to the Congress. The party lost Goa. It failed to wrest Punjab and scraped through a
virtual tie in Uttarakhand — both of whose incumbent governments had been considered pushovers. And it
crashed to the bottom in Uttar Pradesh where Rahul Gandhi led a shrill, high profile campaign. Only in Manipur
did the Congress sail through comfortably. This election got its edge-of-the-seat excitement from two
extraordinary performances and one cliffhanger: In U.P, the Samajwadi Party led by the father-son team of
Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav demolished every barrier in sight to capture more seats than any victorious
party had in two decades. The SP powerhouse pushed arch rival Bahujan Samaj Party to a distant second, with
the rear being brought up by the BJP and the Congress-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. In Punjab, the Shiromani
Akali Dal-BJP combine made history by becoming the first government to retain power in 46 years. In
Uttarakhand, the BJP and the Congress ended neck and neck, with the latter enjoying an edge because of the
support from independents.
Mulayam Singh undoubtedly contributed to the SP's phenomenal success in U.P. but it was the affable younger
Yadav who was the SP's campaign driver. Through dogged effort and a positive campaign, he transformed an
ideologically fuzzy party — which had been severely weighed down by the Amar Singh-Bollywood baggage —
into one that was rid of its goonish image and looked aspirationally young and modern. That the SP surpassed
the BJP's1991 tally of 221 seats achieved during the Ram wave speaks for itself. The BSP, which was uniquely
placed with a committed core vote, has only itself to blame for squandering away a rare opportunity. Ms

5. Mayawati restored law and order and instituted several positive measures, especially towards the uplift of the
Dalit community. But her achievements faded when measured against the corruption of the administration and
her own perceived arrogance. In the end, the statues she built for herself became a metaphor for the regime's
obsessive self-interest. For all this though, it would be premature to write off the BSP, which even in defeat has
polled around 26 per cent, against an estimated 30 per cent by the SP. Unfortunately, there is no such
consolation for the Congress: the party was routed in U.P., surrendered the anti-incumbency advantage in
Punjab, was nearly edged out in Uttarakhand and performed abysmally in Goa. It does not help the Congress
that the BJP has emerged with a much better score at the end of Elections 2012, which might well become a
turning point for both parties in their quest for power at the Centre two years from now.
Key party position - Party lead position in brackets
Uttar Pradesh (403/403)
SP 218 (6), BSP 76 (4), BJP 45 (2), Congress 26 (2), RLD 9
Uttarakhand (70/70)
BJP 29 (2), INC 28 (4), BSP 3, IND 3
Punjab (117/117)
SAD 56, INC 46 , BJP 12, IND 3
Manipur (46/60)
INC 42, AITC 7 , NPF 4 , MSCP 5., LJSP 1
Goa (33/40)
BJP 21, INC 9, IND 5 (0), GVP 2, MGP 3 , NCP 0
Election 2012, Anti Congress
The Dynasty is angry. The Dynasty is frustrated. The Dynasty is rolling up its sleeves. The Dynasty is, literally,
tearing up the Opposition parties‟ right to make promises in their manifestos, claiming that right exclusively to
itself. The Dynasty has ordered its minions to defy the Election Commission. The Dynasty is also parading its
seventh generation. In a side-show, its son-in-law is saying, “My time will also come.” The dynastically
enslaved Congress party is doing all this and more in the ongoing elections to the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.
The Congress campaign in UP has so far presented three distinctive features, all of which show its growing
desperation. Firstly, Rahul Gandhi has so completely personalised his party‟s battle as to make the poll outcome
a virtual referendum on his own leadership. In the process, he has demonstrated an unusual degree of anger,
aggression and immaturity, which puts a big question mark over his suitability to become India‟s next prime
minister. And make no mistake. Even a relative improvement in the Congress party‟s performance in UP—it
had won only 22 seats in the 403-member assembly in 2007—will embolden the Dynasty‟s sycophants to
demand that Dr Manmohan Singh be replaced by the „Yuvaraj‟ ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls.

6. Secondly, the Congress party has, as a matter of deliberate strategy, chosen to communalise the UP elections in
order to wean away Muslim votes, which so far have remained the mainstay of the Samajwadi Party‟s
dominance in state politics. The UPA government‟s poll-eve—and blatantly unconstitutional—decision of
carving out a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for “minorities” within the 27 per cent OBC quota was quickly followed by
Law Minister Salman Khurshid‟s announcement that the reservation for “backward Muslims” (never mind that
they are already covered in the OBC category) would be increased to 9 per cent.
Realising perhaps that appeasement through a communal quota alone wasn‟t enough to take the Muslim vote-
bank away from Mulayam Singh‟s party, which has promised an 18 per cent quota for all Muslims, Congress
leaders then raked up the issue of the Batla House encounter in New Delhi in 2008. The Union Home Ministry
has unambiguously affirmed that the encounter was genuine. This hasn‟t deterred Digvijay Singh, Salman
Khurshid and other Congress campaigners from questioning their own government‟s integrity in this matter.
Digvijay Singh, the Dynasty‟s chief mentor and spokesman, had similarly thrown his weight behind the
ludicrous theory that it was “Hindu terrorists” who killed police officer Hemant Karkare during the Pakistan-
based terrorists‟ attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Khurshid even claimed at a rally in Azamgarh that
the head of the Dynasty “cried bitterly” when she saw pictures of the terrorists killed by the cops in the Batla
House encounter.
Why do Congress leaders demean Indian Muslims in this manner? Why do they believe that the only way to
appeal to the hearts and minds of our Muslim brethren is to show that the latter sympathise with terrorists and
anti-national elements? During a TV debate on this subject last week, I said that it is absolutely wrong to think
that all Muslims in Azamgarh and Batla House are either terrorists or sympathisers of terrorism. However, I
also asked: “Isn‟t it rank communalism to whitewash acts of terrorism?” It‟s hardly surprising that the Congress
manifesto for UP elections doesn‟t even mention the word “security”. The Dynasty either believes that the state
and the nation face no danger at all from the operatives of SIMI, HuJI and ISI, who have found safe havens in
many parts of UP, or that mentioning this danger would alienate Muslim voters.
The third element in the Congress strategy for UP, green-signalled by the Dynasty, is to defy even the Election
Commission‟s model code of conduct if it comes in the way of the party‟s game plan to play the Muslim card.
Two central ministers, Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma, have already done so. The law minister proved
himself to be a lawless minister and, in the end, got away unscathed with a mere expression of regret over his
contemptuous challenge to the EC‟s authority. What was more significant in this entire episode was how
Priyanka Gandhi defended Khurshid‟s offence. “We are a democracy,” she smugly rationalised, adding, “The
minister is free to give his opinion. The EC is also free to give its opinion.” Look how the Dynasty was
dismissively disparaging a Constitutional body.
Communalising the UP election is not an after-thought for the Congress party. It is consistent with the
Dynasty‟s realisation—nay, supposition—that the only way for it to survive is to play the minority appeasement
card more and more brazenly. Remember the Communal Violence Bill mooted by the National Advisory
Council? Turning the basic canon of justice upside down, this poisonous bill explicitly criminalises the majority
community, presumptuously adjudging it guilty for any and every incident of communal violence or tension. It
axiomatically regards the minority community to always be a victim, irrespective of the facts of the case.
India must marginalise the Dynasty for the sake of re-establishing genuine secularism in our country, for doing
away with the artificial and British-conspired majority-minority schism, for enabling our democracy to deliver
what it truly promises—equal opportunity and a level-playing field for all—and for paving the way for good
governance, so essential for the integral development of every section of our diverse society. Hopefully, UP,
where the Dynasty was born, will ensure its defeat in this election.
Elephant trampled

7. This is as decisive as it can get. The pundits had gone to town predicting a hung assembly for UP, with dark mutterings
from certain quarters about the necessity of President`s rule. Instead, in a verdict that will reverberate nationally, the
state`s supposedly fragmented electorate has powered the Samajwadi Party (SP) into staging a stunning upset, pulling the
plug on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Just like the BSP last time the SP now is in a position to form a
government on its own, without depending on coalition allies.
UP`s decisive electoral shift underlines sweeping disaffection against the Mayawati government, as well as the SP`s
capacity to leverage this. Squeezed out by regional players, the two national parties, the Congress and the BJP, have both
taken sharp knocks. In particular, the verdict ought to set alarm bells ringing in Congress party headquarters. Not only did
it finish fourth in UP despite tying up with the RLD, not to mention Rahul Gandhi`s high-voltage campaign, it has fared
poorly in other states with the sole exception of Manipur. The Congress needs to wake up and smell the anti-incumbency
that`s rising nationally against the UPA government, fuelled by rising prices, poor economic management and corruption.
The BSP`s multiple governance failures too have come home to roost. Extravagant and showy political symbolism cannot
take the place of responsive governance that stresses development and people`s livelihoods - including of dalits,
Mayawati`s primary constituency. Mayawati`s aloof mode of governance that centralised sweeping powers in the chief
minister`s office, her interference in transfers and appointments of bureaucrats, or the crippling failure to deliver basic
services like health - none of these have helped matters. The UP verdict confirms a recent healthy trend, seen in voting
patterns across India. If politicians don`t perform, the electorate is watching and will punish them at the hustings.
Mayawati`s losses have transformed into SP`s unprecedented gains. But the man stealing the poll show is Akhilesh
Yadav, the architect of the SP`s image makeover. The 39-year-old SP leader had successfully used modern
communication strategies, as well as grassroots organisational network, to reach out to voters. He has also worked to
distance the party from toughs and corrupt leaders who had sullied its image during its last tenure in power. This time
Mulayam and Akhilesh can`t afford to squander their huge mandate. They need to deliver on the SP`s image makeover by
providing the clean, efficient, responsive and modern governance that the electorate yearns for.
It`s rare for the foibles of the Centre to impinge on assembly polls which are usually fought on state-specific issues and
local concerns. But after its debacle in the just-concluded elections, the Cong-ress can no longer pretend that a year of
scams and non-performance by the Manmohan Singh government in New Delhi has had no effect on its fortunes in the
states.
Of the five states that went to polls, it has managed to shine only in tiny Manipur, which has followed traditional voting
patterns of the vulnerable northeast states by opting for the party that holds power in New Delhi. It has lost Goa, failed to
capitalise on anti-incumbency sentiments in Punjab and Uttarakhand and, most importantly, ended up a poor fourth in
Uttar Pradesh despite intensive, personalised campaigns by both the Gandhi scions, Rahul across UP and Priyanka in the
family pocket boroughs of Amethi, Rae Bareli and Sultanpur.
There is little doubt that the results reflect a national mood that has been building up over the past one year, helped along
by the anti-corruption campaigns of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev to crystallise into a high degree of frustration with
the current dispensation. But if they are a setback for the Congress as the countdown for the next Lok Sabha elections
begins, Rahul Gandhi has even more reason to worry.
The takeaway for him from the party`s disastrous performance in UP is that he can no longer persist with his disingenuous
stunt of insulating himself and his politics from the disarray at the Centre and spin an illusion of being an outsider in the
parent superstructure. In the minds of the voters, there is little distinction and if Brand Manmohan Singh looks tarnished,
Brand Rahul too has suffered.
The carefully cultivated image of an angry young man railing at the money-eating elephant looked hollow when
juxtaposed against the 2G and CWG scandals swirling around the Congress government at the Centre. His barbs about
UP`s poor development record fell flat on the pot-holed roads of Amethi and Rae Bareli which wear a distinct look of
neglect today despite being constituencies of the country`s First Family. The goodies that he got the Centre to shower on

8. election-eve on the poverty-stricken farmers of Bundelkhand, the weavers of eastern UP and the OBC Muslims were too
little, too late. The beneficiaries did not buy promises from someone whose party had ample opportunity to alleviate their
misery, having held the reins of power in New Delhi for the past eight years.
Contrast this with the positive note struck by the Samajwadi Party`s rising young star, Akhilesh Yadav, to whom must go
the lion`s share of the credit for the party`s remarkable turnaround. Akhilesh talked of the future with the promise of
change. Because he did not carry the burden of an unpopular incumbent government, his forward-looking campaign had
tremendous resonance among new voters with rising aspirations. His open face and cool manner stood out in sharp relief
to Rahul`s dour, bearded look.
In the weeks ahead, Rahul will surely introspect and analyse the reasons for his failure to connect with UP voters after so
much investment of time and money. While it may be a trifle unfair to blame the party`s poor showing on him alone, he
will have to accept that his biggest failing has been his inability to resurrect the Congress party`s defunct organisational
machinery in the state.
Brand Akhilesh rode on the back of a solid grassroots network created and nurtured by father Mulayam Singh. Brand
Rahul flew solo. In fact, the young Gandhi turned his back on whatever little organisation the Congress had left, expecting
his family name would serve as a magic wand. He may have generated some personal goodwill but hard-headed voters
were looking for local names and faces with 24x7 accessibility.
It is always hasty to write off a party or a leader. The history of Indian politics is replete with stories of comeback kings
and queens: Indira Gandhi in 1980 after the 1977 debacle, Mamata Banerjee in 2011 after being nearly wiped out in West
Bengal five years before that and many more.
In any case, the winnability of a party in an election is often determined by the mistakes of its opponents. The BJP`s
negative campaign and the pathetic challenge from a motley bunch of parties masquerading as a Third Front certainly
helped the Congress to win a second successive term under Manmohan Singh in 2009.
If at all the Congress can reclaim some of the ground it has lost because of a comatose government at the Centre, it will
have to start by putting governance back on track. Perhaps the best thing it can do is to let Manmohan Singh become a
visible prime minister again while Rahul focusses on rebuilding the party organisation by infusing it with young blood.
Both are formidable tasks with allies like the Trinamool Congress and the NCP already scouting around for new options,
one of which is a nascent non-Congress, non-BJP front of regional satraps. Rahul and Manmohan Singh will have to come
together on the same page for the Congress to tackle the challenges ahead.
Performance scores over tall promises
Two ruling parties ousted, two holding on to power and a neck-to-neck race in a fifth state — it was a confused electoral
pastiche that EVMs unravelled as the counting of votes for the State Assembly elections was held on Tuesday. In what
was the biggest popularity contest of politicians since the 2009 general elections, the Samajwadi Party was given a clear
mandate to rule India‟s largest state of Uttar Pradesh for the next five years, replacing the Bahujan Samaj Party, headed by
Dalit icon and present Chief Minister Mayawati. In Punjab, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance was voted back
to power, for the first time giving a break to the trend of alternating the ruling regimes in every election. While the
Congress had the lone satisfaction of retaining its regime in Manipur, the BJP turned the tables on in coastal Goa and the
two parties seemed headed towards a stalemate in Uttarakhand. The marginalisation of smaller flash parties, such as
Manpreet Singh Badal‟s People‟s Party of Punjab and the Peace Party and Apna Dal in Uttar Pradesh, shows that the
electorate is not interested in non-serious spoilers.
The results, like most thrown out by India‟s fast maturing electorate in the recent past, may have surprised pollsters,
psephologists as well as stakeholders, but their passage was loud and clear. The voters are watching each major contender
while it performs its role as the ruling party or opposition, and deliver their judgment according to performance and not
promise. Vote-catching devices such as road shows and populist dole, such as job quotas can be effective only if the

9. people believe that they will be backed by ground action. There can be no better illustrative examples of this than the
defeat of Union law minister Salman Khurshid‟s wife in his home turf despite his attempt to woo the minorities by
promises of job quotas and the defeat of the Congress candidates in Gandhi family‟s strongholds Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Local factors played a considerable role in these elections but the results, viewed in the backdrop of similar Assembly
polls held after the Congress‟ seeming resurgence in 2009, are bound to impact on the future course of politics in the
national arena. They demonstrate that the political space for national parties like the Congress and the BJP is shrinking.
Correspondingly, powerful regional parties are getting more firmly entrenched in their respective terrains and are poised
to play a greater and more eloquent role in the shaping of the contours of the ruling dispensation at the Centre and its
policies.
The Congress will feel the tremors of this qualitative and quantitative change in the reconfiguration of Indian polity in the
coming Budget Session. The emboldened and regrouped regional political satraps like West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa have given notice
of confronting it on the question of dilution of the principles of federalism. They have forced the UPA to put on the hold
policy decisions, like the National Counter Terrorism Centre and foreign direct investment in the retail sector. Tuesday‟s
results are bound to strengthen their ranks. If the Centre wants to recover its capacity to govern effectively, it will have to
adopt a path of conciliation towards non-Congress state governments and revive the mechanisms for continuous and more
frequent consultations with them.
Though the sustained emergence of regional parties in large parts of India poses an existential challenge to the so-called
national parties, it does not necessarily pose a threat to the politics of nationalism. Having held power in their respective
states for long, each of them has participated in national governments for long stints. While safeguarding the political
aspirations of the people they represent, they have shown tremendous commitment to protecting the nation‟s unity and
contributing towards its social and economic progress. Stronger and stable state governments can make the Centre
stronger if different components of India‟s federal political administrative structure work in harmony. After all, it is the
state governments that are the vehicles of delivery for most centrally-sponsored and funded schemes.