Rickshaw-walas in Padrauna, in eastern Uttar Pradesh on the Bihar border — the proverbial Purabias — are happy to risk an accident when they crane their necks and turn back to eloquently describe why they cannot be equated with Biharis, politically or indeed in any way. Never mind that the musical drawl of their Bhojpuri is similar, as are the sowing season, crops grown, or every other statistic thrown up about poverty, health and other social indicators. The “difference”, they convince you, comes from their political arithmetic and to equate it all with the certainty of a Bimaru materialist would be a wild thing to do.

As far as differences between states go, this election will witness the culmination of a process visible for decades now. The answers will really emerge once the results are in, but the bottomline is already clear: looking for similarities even between states often clubbed together is fraught with danger. Consider the southern states. They veered off and have their own very peculiar dynamics: Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu, each one unique and proudly distinct. A fascinating example of how states there have kept their identity, despite being cheek by jowl and integrated in other ways, is the district of Mahe within the Puducherry constituency, which as a result of our peculiar colonial past is situated on the Kerala coast. If you drive by you suddenly see DMK flags for exactly that stretch, amidst a sea of Congress tricolour and Left red — they are quite unaffected by even their geographical location, set as they are amidst a full-blooded battle between the UDF and LDF!

... contd.