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Assembly Elections 2017: Powerful parivars crumble at the hustings

The dethroning of powerful political families in UP and Punjab is a significant outcome.

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With the Gandhis and the Yadavs in Uttar Pradesh and the Badals in Punjab being routed, has Election 2017 written the epitaph for powerful political families?

It would appear so, with the Rahul Gandhi-Akhilesh Yadav alliance losing to the BJP, which crossed the 300-mark in Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance whittled down to just 18 seats in the 117-member House.

Though there are no permanent endings in politics, the dethroning of powerful political families in the two states is among the significant outcomes of the Assembly elections. While the historic defeat of the Congress at the hands of "chaiwala" Narenda Modi in 2014 had already created ripples within the grand old party, it is now time for the Badals to face a similar situation.

In the past two decades, the family has made SAD a fiefdom. From its inception in 1920 till 1997, the party had democratically elected presidents.

The current results have reinforced that family dominated parties are on a decline.

Moving away from the awe and romanticism that may have once attracted voters, these families just don't strike the same chord anymore. People, it would appear, want someone they can identify with.

After Independence, when more than 500 princely states were integrated, another form of dynastic rule -- that of elected political dynasties -- took over. There were the Nehru-Gandhis, the Karunanidhi family of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Yadav clan of Mulayam Singh Yadav (including Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav) and the Badals in Punjab.

The BJP may not be a fully non-dynastic party, but 15% of its MPs in the current Lok Sabha are from political families against 48% of the Congress.

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and grandson of the late Uma Shankar Dikshit, admitted that the party did not have the stamina to invest in building leaders or backing them.

"We don't have a system to build and stand behind a leader. The 2002 Modi-BJP episode is a great example. Modi was actually a liability for the BJP... but they stuck with Modi, gave him an opportunity, and see where he has gone," he said.

Under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, who led the campaign against Modi in 2014, the Congress has suffered huge losses. Dikshit also called out the party for ducking transparent discussions and said it's essential for "systems within (an) organisation to help leaders improve or build themselves".

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh added that the Gandhis are a binding force and kept the party together. However, there was an urgent need to build and back regional leaders, he said, attributing the party's victory in Punjab to Amarinder Singh. "We have to take a decisive action to build up the party and not totally depend on Rahul Gandhi, who tirelessly worked in these elections," he said.

At the party headquarters, many leaders were whispering that the party doesn't learn lessons even from its defeats. After the 2014 debacle, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had assigned senior leader AK Antony to take stock of the defeat and recommend measures for the party's revival.

According to a top party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Antony's report had mentioned infighting, demoralised workers, lack of effective pre-poll alliances, corruption and communal polarisation.

It had also hinted at Rahul's abysmal failure to inspire the party rank and file. The party leaders agree that the defeat in UP was bound to deepen the crises within the party. "It's a shocking drubbing even after aligning with the SP. It is now time to introspect," said a leader. It's an advice that the SP and the SAD might also benefit from.

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