Rethinking regional politics: Beyond the 2021 West Bengal elections

Abstract

The question of region dominated the 2021 West Bengal elections in a way it did not in states where elections were held alongside. Subsequently, the victory of the Trinamool Congress has been hailed by commentators and scholars as a successful instance both in regional politics and in the defence of federal polity. However, this article contends, the implications of this mandate for the politics of region and federalism cannot be grasped with reference to its own details, but only in a comparative reading of a series of assembly elections held in the recent past and the general elections of 2019. Considering how regional politics gets constituted and elections produce results today, this paper makes an argument that the emergent pattern of mandates indicates rather a problem – that of neutralization of regional politics and federal structure into a devolution of power instead of their elaboration as domains of contestation of an expansionist regime.