India, June 29 -- The beauty of India's democracy is that it always moves from one election to the other, as if it is a relay race. For the BJP, the heady feeling of a landslide victory in West Bengal must not have subsided yet. Nevertheless, it has started laying the groundwork for the coming assembly polls. Elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, and Goa next year will decide the political fate of many regional parties, leaders, and political families. The contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP-led alliance in Uttar Pradesh would be quite interesting to watch. SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav is leaving no stone unturned to win the elections. He knows that any regional party that loses three elections in a row can't hold its flock together. After winning 37 seats in the Lok Sabha elections his morale is high. But the path ahead isn't exactly littered with roses. He's pitted against a towering political rival, Yogi Adityanath. Along with establishing a successful law and order system, Adityanath enjoys great traction among the majority voters. A senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, Rajnath Singh, too comes from this state. The BJP would like to deploy its political prowess to the fullest. For Mayawati, too, next year would be a decisive battle. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been in the doldrums after its landslide win in the 2007 assembly polls. Right now, it has zero representation in the Lok Sabha and just one representative in the UP assembly, it has just one representative. To attract the younger generation, she has fielded her nephew, Akash Anand, as her deputy. If the experiment fails, she'll face a double whammy. She will have to face defeat and allegations of nepotism. The Badals in Punjab suffer the same political fate. Since losing power in 2017 their vote share is constantly diminishing. Due to the old age of the Party supremo Parkash Singh Badal (he died in 2023), the Shiromani Akali Dal's command went to his son, Sukhbir. During those days, political parties were in the process of corporatisation. Instead of launching movements and working to strengthen and defend regional identity, they turned parties into fiefdoms for personal gain. Sukhbir was accused of amassing untold wealth by controlling the commercial vehicle fleet, regional media houses, and vast tracts of land. In 2015, an incident of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib surfaced, and that led the Shiromani Akali Dal on a path of political decline. This was a big blow to their political fortunes. During Sukhbir's reign, the drug trade in Punjab broke all records. A powerful minister of the Punjab government was accused of being involved in the drug trade. The resentment was visible in films such as Udta Punjab. The Aam Admi Party (AAP) made it an election issue and won 20 seats, pushing the Shiromani Akali Dal to an embarrassing third spot. In the 2022 assembly elections, the AAP won 92 out of 117 seats and formed the government. This was the first time that The Akali Dal shrunk to just three seats. Even Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir lost their seats. The general elections in 2024 proved to be even more disastrous. The Akali Dal could win just one seat. The Akali Dal split from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance during the farmers' protest. The BJP and the Akalis remain political rivals. This time, the BJP has announced that it will fight the Punjab elections on its own. This is the reason many seats will witness a four cornered fight. For the Congress, the road isn't easy. Till 2022, it was ruling the province. For the AAP, it's a fight for survival. After losing Delhi, it's the only place they are in power. The party is facing headwinds due to anti-incumbency and the chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann facing alarming allegations of sacrilege. In Uttarakhand, the BJP has been in power since 2017. A young Pushkar Singh Dhami is in the saddle as CM. He's known to take quick and decisive actions. The BJP is facing internal dissensions, but party president Nitin Nabin has made a public declaration that the elections would be fought under the leadership of Pushkar Singh Dhami. It has had a positive impact on the workers. The BJP looks confident of winning the elections under Dhami's stewardship. For the Congress, even Uttarakhand would be a tough test. The party has tried to rejuvenate demoralised workers by making firebrand leader Ganesh Godiyal the state unit chief. But senior leaders such as Harish Rawat keep creating hurdles for him. Will Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge be able to take decisive action like the BJP? The situation in Manipur and Goa is quite interesting. It doesn't matter who forms the government in the state, a handful of powerful families keep calling the shots. They leave no stone unturned to maintain their control. At times, while living under the same roof, husband and wife fought and won on tickets from opposing parties. In these states, the voter numbers are very low, which helps the political parties keep their flock under tight control. There's no respite in sight from this phenomenon in the coming elections However, with the fall of Tejashwi Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Sharad Pawar, can we safely say that the days of family-run political parties are over and they will be forced into a merciless bargain at the national level? We will get a clear answer in Lucknow. If Akhilesh Yadav wins the assembly elections, he would become a beacon of hope for family-run parties. If he fails, then the chances of a powerful alliance led by the Congress taking on the BJP alliance are bright. This is the reason every party is ready to do anything to win the coming elections. We should brace ourselves for new surprises and some ugly incidents. The last few elections are a testimony to this fact....