Whether it is good sign or a bad sign is a different question. And the fact of the matter is that the CPI and CPI-M, yes they are national parties. But it is by the definition described by the Election Commission. The CPI and CPI-M do not exist in all 28 states. Therefore what are the criteria of the national party? If a political party gets four per cent of votes and that four per cent may come from two or three states as it had happened here.

Therefore, let us not go by the technicality. Even the BJP does not exist in all states. In the Northeastern states what is their stake? Therefore these are national parties by definition of the Election Commission.

So far as UP is concerned, earlier Mayawati has formed a government with a coalition, the Samajwadi Party has formed a coalition with other parties; the BJP has formed the government. I am talking from the 1990s onwards from when a coalition government in UP is going on and after many years a single party got the majority.

Your conclusion that national parties have become marginalised -- how could you say in one election? Punjab we lost this time we won last time. In a parliamentary democracy it is bound to happen. Therefore people have a tendency of generalising. It is not correct. So far as UP, Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu are concerned, the Congress party is weak and everybody knows that.

Image: Priyanka Gandhi, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's daughter, in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. Photograph: Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images
Also see: In Rae Bareli, Mrs G is queen

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