The vagaries of equidistance in a polarised polity: Data

Regional parties in India, their alliances with BJP, ideological positions, and performance in 2024 Lok Sabha elections analyzed.

Regional parties have been a significant presence in Indian polity for over three decades now. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, they could be classified into three types — one, parties that allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the National Democratic Alliance; two, parties that were part of the INDIA bloc and a distinctive third category. This category includes parties that were technically not part of the NDA, and had, in the recent past, endorsed controversial legislations introduced by the BJP or adopted ideological positions closer to that of the BJP.

The first category includes parties such as the Shiv Sena (led by Eknath Shinde), Janata Dal (United), Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Lok Janshakti Party, Asom Gana Parishad and Nationalist Congress Party.

The second category includes Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party, the Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party (SP), the Left parties, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Aam Aadmi Party. The Trinamool Congress supported the alliance after the polls.

The third category includes the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, Biju Janata Dal, the AIADMK, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti and the Shiromani Akali Dal.

In 2024, the fortunes of the parties in the first two categories were tied to the fate of their respective alliances — they did well where the dominant party of the alliance performed well. But the parties in the third category did rather poorly.

Table 1 looks at three legislations by BJP that were in line with their ideological positions on “asymmetric federalism in India” — dilution of Article 370, Farmers Bill and Citizenship Amendment Act.

Table 1 | The table lists where select parties positioned themselves on these legislations. Note how YSCRP, BJD, BRS, AIADMK, AAP and BSP supported BJP on one or more of these legislations, despite technically contesting against the BJP in their respective States and ideologically being opposed to it.