India's Elections Go 'Glocal'

The verdict is in before the verdict is in: before the five-phase polling process is over, most political commentators have predicted -- surprise, surprise -- a fractured mandate yet again. In fact, some have gone to the extent of saying that these elections will throw up a government so unstable that they are only a prelude, a 'semi-final' or a 'dress rehearsal' for another polling exercise some 18 months or two years down the line.

The villain of the piece is generally acknowledged to be regionalism. The mainstream national parties like the Congress and the BJP have steadily been losing out to regional organisations, like Mayawati's BSP or Naveen Patnaik's BJD, which in turn want to play coalition kingmakers and have central leadership aspirations.