Elections and 'wallet economics': Does economic under-performance matter?

There are instances - both from national and state elections - of economic under-performers being returned to power, and also of parties being thrown out despite good performance, writes T N Ninan

As chief ministers come and go in state after state, the political discourse is remarkable for being mostly divorced from economics. Take Amarinder Singh, the Punjab chief minister who has resigned in a cloud of justified grievance about being humiliated. But if you were to ask, had Mr Singh earned the right to lead the Congress into the next state elections, due in a few months, you would have to look at his government’s performance. And here’s the thing. In terms of per capita state domestic product, the average resident of Punjab has seen his or her share of state