Federalism is alive and well

While the Lok Sabha elections provided an overarching national political narrative, the four state assembly elections which were held along with them produced significant results, showing how politics differed from state to state and how each had a unique political culture and character. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh elected their assemblies and a different party won in each state. When a uniform political wave was sweeping the country, it is a healthy sign that some states thought differently. This may be because states have politically evolved in different ways and the issues and concerns in an assembly election are different from those of a national election. The fact that people in different states think and vote differently strengthens the country’s federal political system and governance structure.

The most striking and spectacular result was the victory of YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh, which swept away the Telugu Desam Party of Chandrababu Naidu from power. Naidu, who had left the NDA after the Modi government refused to grant the state the promised special category status, had even thought of a national role for himself. But the party took a severe beating in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections. Jaganmohan Reddy built on the goodwill for his late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy, and his hard work and persistence appealed to the people, despite the serious corruption charges and investigations against him. Jaganmohan Reddy will not have the bargaining power that he had hoped for at the Centre but he will be well entrenched in the state.

Naveen Patnaik has withstood the BJP’s charge in Odisha and the Biju Janata Dal has secured a fifth term. But the BJP has made major gains and replaced the Congress as the main opposition. It is remarkable that the people of the state exercised great judgement and voted differently for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, giving a big victory for Patnaik in the state but giving the BJP as many as eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. Arunachal Pradesh has voted true the North-Eastern states’ tradition of favouring the party in power at the Centre. Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who was with Congress when he first assumed office in 2016 and walked over to the BJP within months, has now won a second term under the saffron banner. In Sikkim, the 25-year-old tenure of veteran Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, who is the country’s longest surviving chief minister, has ended with the defeat of his Sikkim Democratic Front. While two states favoured continuity, the other two voted for change, but all of them spoke different political languages.