For example, what is the story of Assam elections 2016? Till five years ago ‘insurgency’ dominated the discourse. This time ‘experts’ seem to have forgotten that word. What replaced violence was the old issue of immigration and identity and that played itself out like a throwback to the Seventies and Eighties. There is a slight difference though — the Asom Gana Parishad now playing second fiddle to the Bharatiya Janata Party that has finally become a national party by expanding its footprint to the east. The BJP after a double defeat in Delhi and Bihar seems to have got its plot right. They can now win without the ‘cow’ and they have learnt not to rely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigns alone, but go local. The ‘North-Indian party’ (as perceived in the east) realized that regional is the future. Stitching together a crafty social coalition with a tribal chief ministerial candidate and not pushing their national agenda aggressively has delivered. But is that all?