Like a stubborn rash, regional political parties just won't go away

They are in power in six states. They are part of an alliance with national parties in ten. And reports of their death are highly exaggerated

The national parties are dismissive about them. At the Udaipur consultation of his party, leader Rahul Gandhi said the Congress is the only alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties, which are casteist and therefore limited in their appeal, cannot fight the BJP, in the way the Congress, a national party, can. This, despite the fact that in 2004 (and 2009) the Congress could come to power only via carefully scripted alliances with regional parties. He refined his comments later, but the damage had been done.

The BJP’s attack on regional parties is not that they are