For both the BJP and the Congress, national success rests on a sum of state victories: electoral math demands that each party apply itself to this painful slog through each state. Obviously, how parties structure opportunities has deep implications for the quality of democracy. The Congress usually gets a bad rap for its opaque process of selecting state leaders — its inability to groom and nurture regional politicians is interpreted as the peculiar failing of its insecure, overcentralised structure. But, clearly, the BJP is no paragon of intra-party fairness either. A few months back, they made a move towards institutionalising mechanisms to settle such conflicts when the Sushil Modi impasse was handled by secret ballot. But will the BJP build on that step as they decide the Uttarakhand matter after the September 13 panchayat polls?

Generally, most parties make no attempt to gauge internal consensus before even the most basic decision-making — from bestowing tickets to staking ideological positions. We recently witnessed the Left flouting its own vaunted traditions of intra-party democracy with the summary expulsion of Somnath Chatterjee. Being attentive to local conditions, and being supple enough to accommodate new agendas is vital for a national party. When there are no transparent routes for personal advancement or sanctioned channels to express difference, party members are left with no choice but to break away.