The evolving status of regional parties in India, especially in the wake of the recent Assembly elections, will be among the key themes at The Hindu Huddle on June 6 in Bengaluru.

The theme of The Hindu Huddle this year is ‘A World in Transition’. This resonates as much within India as it does globally, with the country’s multi-party system evolving with every electoral cycle. The space occupied by regional parties is changing, and in the wake of the recent Assembly poll results, many have predicted a bleak future for them. But the history of regional parties shows that in a country with as many variations as India, there is never a last day for an idea.

Against this backdrop, The Huddle will host a session titled ‘Nurturing our pluralist union: The role of regional politics in strengthening democracy’, with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP K. Kanimozhi, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Santrupt Misra, and Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Javed Ali Khan. The diversity represented by the speakers is expected to not only reflect the variations in India’s regional politics, but also the points of convergence.

As the title of the session suggests, the question of the place of regional parties within a single-party hegemonic polity has implications for India’s democracy in terms of representation of regional aspirations. It also touches upon questions of culture, language, and literary expression.

The session will be moderated by The Hindu’s political editor, Nistula Hebbar.