The Algebra of Expansion

The emerging political order reflects a form of federalism in which regional voices still matter-but national priorities will prevail

- Mahendra Kumar Singh IS A FORMER JOURNALIST AND CURRENTLY TEACHES POLITICAL SCIENCE AT DDU GORAKHPUR UNIVERSITY, GORAKHPUR

INDIA’S ‘one-party dominance’ era of the 1950s appears to have returned—once led by the Congress, and now redefined under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a broader national footprint, stronger ideological clarity and decisive leadership under Narendra Modi.

The BJP has decisively reconfigured the contours of India’s political order since capturing power at the Centre in 2014, marking a shift toward a new phase of one-party hegemony by decimating regional political outfits.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has expanded its rule to 22 states and Union Territories, thereby consolidating its footprint over nearly 80 per cent of India’s population according to the 2011 census.

In the recently concluded Assembly polls, the BJP breached the final rampart; West Bengal, the last fortress controlled by the powerful regional satrap, Mamata Banerjee. In doing so, it has steadily eroded the salience of regional parties that had emerged as pivotal actors in the post-Congress system. These formations gained prominence after the decline of the Congress’ one-party dominance from the late 1960s, a transition that intensified in the late 1980s, particularly in the aftermath of the Mandal Commission report.

After the Congress declined post-1989, regional parties rose to their peak, ushering in nearly 25 years of coalition-driven governance at the Centre. States like Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar became powerhouses of regional formations. The NDA and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments, led alternately by the BJP and the Congress, depended entirely on regional allies. As a result, coalition survival shaped every major decision, forcing the Centre to remain deeply responsive to regional aspirations, subnational identities and federal demands.