Regional parties can’t be battered by breakaway factions!

New Delhi: Even for the sake of exception, it does not fall in memory, that if a regional party has broken up and the party has passed from the hands of the founding leader’s family to another person. Regional parties are also broken but their break is never too devastating. Second, the party has remained within the family in most cases since its breakup and third, no other regional party formed out of regional parties has been more successful. Hence Shiv Sena cannot be imagined without Thackerays. It is possible that Shiv Sena may break up and a large number of its MLAs and MPs may go along with Eknath Shinde but in spite of that Shiv Sena will remain of Thackeray family. Keep in mind that Raj Thackeray had also separated from Shiv Sena to form Maharashtra Navnirman Sena but the party did not succeed, even though he was a member of the Thackeray family.

Many parties were formed after breaking away from the Congress and the BJP, some of which were also successful. Similarly, after the break-up in the socialist camp, many parties were formed and were successful. But this is not the case with regional parties. Parties formed by a strong satrap do not break and even if they break, the separation group ends. For example, in the nineties, there was a major breakdown in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Krishna Mardi had formed a separate faction, but in the very next election, the party ended. Parkash Singh Badal’s nephew Manpreet Badal formed the Punjab People’s Party after breaking away from the Akali Dal, but the party ended in the very first election. After breaking away from DMK, MK Alagiri formed a separate party but could not make a dent in the state politics. Shivpal Yadav formed the party after separating from the Samajwadi Party, but failed.

After the breakup, some of the parties which were left in the hands of someone from the family became successful. Like in Haryana, Dushyant Chautala formed the Jannayak Janata Party after separating from the Indian National Lok Dal and was successful in the first elections. Now the main party of Chautala family is JJP. The Telugu Desam Party formed by NT Rama Rao was taken under control by his son-inlaw Chandrababu Naidu and he was also successful. But no person from outside can usurp parties which are controlled by one family.

Despite being weak, such parties are bound by the charisma of the leader. For example, despite being marginalised, there are many parties like Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, DMK in Tamil Nadu, JDS in Karnataka, RLD in Uttar Pradesh, Akali Dal in Punjab, in which there was no big break and the parties survived. In this, there is a different example of Lok Janshakti Party of Bihar, in which family members quarreled, party broke down and party’s name and election symbol was confiscated. Despite this, it is certain that the legacy of Ram Vilas Paswan will remain with his son Chirag Paswan.