Tapping Regional Aspirations

The scene of regional political parties dominating most parts of India, barring Hindi heartlands of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan and yes Gujrat too, now has shifted to the North-East states too breaking the shackles of National Congress and Left. The results of the Assembly elections, especially Tripura, are prima facie, absolutely tectonic. In Nagaland, the BJP combining with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) looks set to edge out the Naga People's Front (NPF) which got a mere 2 seats less than the NDPP.
In Meghalaya, the BJP has got just 2 seats and the Congress 21. And yet, in a scenario which brings back memories of what happened in Goa exactly a year ago, a 2-member BJP is set to prop up a 19-member National People's party.
In Tripura, the BJP very strategically allied with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) to get 43 seats, in a landslide majority, signalling the end of close to a three-decade red rule. The annihilation of the Left augurs well for politics in general.
These are important signposts. Barring Tripura there were no clear pre-poll alliances in Nagaland and Meghalaya. In Nagaland, the BJP actually had its feet in both the boats of the regional outfits and we shall wait for the story to end only when the swearing in takes place. In Meghalaya, the BJP doesn't mind a toehold to get more than a foothold and then probably the whole door.
In each of the three states, the regional outfits, which are also those of indigenous people, have won in a manner hitherto unheard of. While regional groups always existed, it is the national parties, mainly the Congress, which have dominated the political landscape. But in the past two years, we have noticed a ground shift in Northeast politics which has been bathed with the shower of regionalism.
More specifically, the Northeast is going through a significant phase in their journey where they have either rejected nationalist parties or are willing to accept them, only as combination with indigenous forces. There is a realisation that local needs, desires and dreams can be understood, and based on that understanding, fulfilled only by local parties and interests. And interestingly many of the leaders of the regional outfits in the Northeast, were in national parties and decided to break away and form regional outfits, realising that there was change in the goalposts as far as people's support was concerned.
What the BJP has strategically done here is realised this trend before the Congress and stepped in as a guarantor by backing a regional outfit. By doing that, it fulfils the twin purpose of forming governments in states where it would have been virtually impossible to do so and at the same time remind the state of the importance of having the support of the Centre to expedite development works.
Regional politics is currently placed at the mainstream of Indian politics and all you need to do is look at political combination across a majority of the states. Politics therefore has to be seen through the prism of regional politics, and this is something that smart national parties understand.