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While Jan Suraj may be the latest party to bite the dust, there are other parties that created a strong buzz but failed to succeed in the elections, such as actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, which did not win a single seat in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Moving forward, all eyes are now on Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), which was founded by actor-turned-politician Vijay last year. The party has created a strong buzz and many political ‘startups’ created by film stars in the past are doing well in the South, raising expectations from it in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections next year.
Former Congress leader and political analyst Sanjay Jha said political ‘startups’ find it difficult to grow as it takes time to gain ideological clarity, and claimed that India has become more conservative, less risk-taking and influenced by the discourse on traditionalism.
There are also many small ‘startup’ parties such as Pushpam Priya Chaudhary’s Plurals Party in Bihar. His party has contested two consecutive assembly elections in Bihar but did not get any seat in both.
Then there are some smaller parties which have limited ambitions and are stuck in a few places like Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
In Uttar Pradesh, there are parties like NISHAD Party, Peace Party, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
In India, parties keep being formed and disappear after poor performance in elections, but there is no discussion. But the same cannot be said about Kishor’s Jan Suraj as it created a stir, with many predicting that it could emerge as the next Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Bihar elections.
However, the media excitement around it proved to be a mirage as the party lost the elections and failed to open its account in any of the 238 seats it contested.
According to the Election Commission, most of Jan Suraj’s candidates got less than 10 percent of the total votes and their deposits were forfeited.
Barring exceptions, parties that have gained a foothold in India broadly fall into three categories – born out of a movement, built around a household name, personality or a dynasty, and developed around a social or religious group or a specific ideology.
Kishor was a well-known personality, but not like those who have been successful in the past, mostly film stars or established politicians who had defected from their parent parties.
If one looks at the political scenario of the country, there are six national parties – BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), National People’s Party (NPP), and AAP.
While Congress emerged from the independence movement, BJP emerged from an ideology and benefited from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
The CPI(M) was formed around an ideology, the NPP was formed by a well-known politician who broke away from his parent party, the BSP was formed around a social group and the AAP emerged from the India Against Corruption movement.
Very few political ‘startups’ have done well since the rise of the regional Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1982, and that too was formed on the popularity of film star NT Rama Rao.
Parties that have since emerged as regional forces like the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha and the AIMIM in Telangana have benefited either because of a known political figure who defected from the parent party (Mamata Banerjee) or because of dynastic goodwill (Naveen Patnaik and Asaduddin Owaisi). Although AIMIM was formed long ago, it gained popularity under the leadership of Owaisi.
Other parties like Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) are also examples that fall into one of two categories – breakaway factions or dynastic harmony.
The Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK) was built around a movement for the protection of Dalits and has had limited success in Tamil Nadu.
Sanjay Kumar, a sociologist and former director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), does not believe in the notion that political ‘startups’ work more in the South than in the North, but said it depends on specific factors.
“I think you need a background against which to form a new party. One is if your face is recognizable and you have a big personality. In the South, most of the examples are of film stars. Your face should be completely recognizable by the common people and not your work but your face. Second, this party has been formed in the background of some movements, for example the Aam Aadmi Party and the Assam Gana Parishad in Assam.
“The parties that have failed, including Prashant Kishor’s party, do not fit into either of the criteria. In the South, most of the parties that have been established are formed by film stars, their faces are recognized and that is why they are more successful than some of the parties in North India,” he said.
Political analyst Sanjay Jha said that for a political ‘startup’, it is important to take your beginning as a semi-final and it is better not to live in a fool’s paradise.
“Arvind Kejriwal is not the right example: he was an external beneficiary of a high-profile 24×7 media-driven campaign, secretly fueled by the RSS,” he claimed.
He argued that in a crowded multipolar political ecosystem, the launch of a new ideology or entity struggles to attract prime time attention after initial enthusiasm.
“…It takes time to mobilize funds, right talent, operational planning and ideological clarity. What makes the matter more challenging is that the inherited status quo political parties will attack new entrants vehemently, as this will invariably reduce their market share of votes.
“Thus, they have a huge incentive to ridicule and denigrate the new kid on the block as a surrogate for the existing stalwart,” the former Congress leader said.
“I think Prashant Kishor followed the playbook brilliantly. But we must remember that under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, India has become more conservative, less risk-taking and influenced by the conversation on traditionalism,” Jha alleged.
He claimed that it is not easy to disrupt the political ecosystem as Modi would like a two-party structure.
“This helps their case to see the destruction of regional aspirations and limiting their resources to just one pan-India option,” Jha alleged.
The ruling NDA dismantled the grand alliance in Bihar to retain power, dealing a blow to the Congress and its ally RJD. Jan Suraj had a disappointing start and did not get a single seat.