For apparent heirs of Assam and TN, a mighty road to throne ahead

It was meant to be a passing of baton from DMK chief M Karunanidhi to son M K Stalin, the long-standing political heir apparent in Tamil Nadu. But following the party's defeat in the state election on Thursday, the coronation must wait.

In Assam again, Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi's attempt to push son Gaurav as successor caused a rupture in the party with the exit of senior leader Himanta Sarma, a development that severely damaged Congress's political health in the state. With Congress losing power in Assam and Kerala, it's bad news for Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Gandhi family, too.

Sons, especially those expected to carry a family's political legacy, had a bad day when elections in the just-concluded state assembly polls were announced on Thursday. Unlike 2015, when RJD boss Lalu Prasad's son Tejaswi Yadav triumphed from the Raghopur assembly seat and was made deputy CM, this was more like son-rise interrupted.

The question is: is this just a temporary blip or does this indicates a fundamental shift in the way Indian politics is conducted?
Political scientist Imtiaz Ahmed feels that it is too early to say that dynastic politics is disliked by people. "Otherwise, how do you explain the Uttar Pradesh situation?" Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav is the son of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"When a party loses, it is due to an overall lack of performance. Whether he is a son of a senior politician or not, you can't pin the blame on him in such a situation" Ahmed says.

In fact, three members of Mulayam family entered politics through the panchayat elections in the state early this year, taking the total number of elected representatives from the SP chief's family to 11. Mulayam Singh entered public life promising to fight dynastic rule and feudalism. Now five decades later, a dozen members of his clan are in politics.

The political scientist says there's an "over-reading" of the electoral outcome. "The verdict is just an indicator of how a particular political party performed during its tenure. Nothing more" he adds.

Social scientist Dipankar Gupta says voters never send out big messages, but small ones. "We impute grand, banner headlines on what is a matter of simple negativity that is contextual: there is somebody they don't want."

But the bottom line remains that Thursday was a bad day for aspiring, ambitious sons.