Resilience of Dynastic Politics

The victory of Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the Lok Sabha by-elections in Kannauj was surprising only for the process – the candidate was elected unopposed. For a state which saw a large number of parties in the fray in the recent assembly polls and which witnessed a closely-fought election between four major parties in many constituencies, an uncontested election for the Lok Sabha should be an aberration. Yet it made perfect sense for the SP’s main competitors – the Bahujan ­Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) – not to waste any resources fielding a candidate against Dimple Yadav who was sure to win. After all, she was contesting a seat that had been vacated by her husband after he became chief ­minister of the state.

What explains this certainty that dynastic succession will ­attract support at the polls? An interesting analysis of the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 done by Patrick French in his 2010 book India – A Potrait revealed that close to one-third of the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) in the current Lok Sabha have a hereditary/family background in politics. All young MPs below the age of 30 and most below the age of 40 are from such a background. Family connections in politics are characteristic of MPs from most ­parties – more common in regional parties than in national ones although the Congress Party has the ­highest incidence of such a background and the number is parti­cularly high in the northern states. What explains the ­resilience of ­dynastic politics across regions, states and parties in the country – barring the communist parties to a large extent and theBJP to some extent?