Are We Heading For One-Party Rule?

What a week this has been. The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka is hanging by a thread. The congress has also seen a spectacular collapse in Goa, losing 10 of its 15 MLAs to the BJP, and in Delhi, the party has no clue who its leader is after Rahul Gnadhi's resignation. Seven weeks after the election results, the country's grand old party is facing an existential crisis. Then there are the regional parties who enjoyed a dominant role in the coalition era before 2014 and seemed to be giving the BJP the only real fight state-by-state. But look at their situation today. After winning just five seats in UP, Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the party, disappeared and went abroad, only to return to India earlier this week. Lalu Yadav's RJD, under his son Tejwaswi, got zero seats in Bihar - a first for the party which has been a powerful regional force. Tejwasi has been AWOL most of the last few weeks as well. Maywati didn't do that much better in UP, with 10 seats. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP is also unravelling quickly - four of his six Rajya Sabha MPs joined the BJP. The only parties that withstood the Modi wave were the DMK, the BJD, the TRS, and to some extent Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, but here too, the TMC is facing a strong challenge ahead of the Bengal state polls. Even the BJD isn't comfortable - they did well in the assembly poll but the BJP did well in the Lok Sabha election. With this massive mandate for PM Modi, and what seems to be an opposition that is withering away, are we heading towards one-party rule?