When independent India chose democracy in 1947 after nearly 200 years of British rule under the Victorian Crown, the idea was to give a fair chance to all commoners to be part of India’s growth story – partly as leaders and partly as voters. Initially, as the democracy progressed, leaders were not chosen but elected – by the people, of the people, for the people. However, in the early 1970s, the dynamics began to change. The ‘elected’ leaders started ‘choosing’ their successors. From Congress's Indira Gandhi in 1966 to nowDMK'sUdhayanidhi Stalin, the list of chosen ones kept growing, and a new term was coined - ‘parivarvaad’ or dynasty politics.
Today, we are a 76-year-old democracy, but nepotism in politics is no longer a one-off case but a norm, with most political parties displaying dynastic tendencies. The nation continued to back the heirs of powerful political families. However, in the last decade, voters appear to have reassessed this trend. East, West, North, and now South – voters have rejected dynasts in many cases.
In Kashmir, it was the Abdullah family that came to power as early as 1948, and its next two generations - from Farooq Abdullah to Omar Abdullah (present chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir) - saw power being transferred in perpetuity. The story is no different in the South. The Karunanidhi family came to power in Tamil Nadu in 1969, and its next two generations (son MK Stalin and grandson Udhayanidhi Stalin) have been in the power corridors of the state for decades.
Even in the Hindi heartland, the story is similar. The Yadav family has ruled Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for decades and still enjoys considerable sway despite not being in power for quite some time. The parallel is difficult to find elsewhere in the world.
However, things started to change when the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in 2014.
Indian politics has undergone a massive churn since then, and the trend was also visible in the recently concluded assembly elections. The 2026 state polls sprang some major surprises - the fall ofTMC in West Bengaland the emergence of the BJP in the state for the first time since Independence.
However, it was the Tamil Nadu election results that shocked one and all, as it was for the first time the state chose someone other than the Dravidian duo, namely the DMK and AIADMK. Superstar-turned-politician Vijay stunned many political pundits, emerging as the single-largest party, securing 108 seats in the 234-seat Assembly.
Stalin’s DMK was reduced to 59 seats, and the Chief Minister also lost his own seat, highlighting how family-run parties are slowly but surely finding it difficult to sustain themselves politically in Modi-led India.
When it comes to dynastic politics, one does not need to look beyond the grand old party to get an idea of how deeply it's rooted in Indian politics. The most prominent example remains the Nehru-Gandhi lineage — from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi to Rajiv Gandhi, and now Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The dominance of the Gandhis in Congress led many political experts to believe that the surname had become synonymous with the party, with some arguing that the grand old party cannot function without a Gandhi at the helm.
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
