He and Mrs Gandhi have shown a taste for redistributing the proceeds of growth to favoured constituencies, some of whom happen to be desperately needy.
Although population growth in Tory constituencies still outpaces Labour's in some regions, the heavily populated south has been swelling at a quicker rate, handing Labour constituencies a national population gain overall.
Mr. Edsall cites a surge in small contributions to Democrats through online credit card donations in 2004 and the party's ability to capitalize on the Web, growth in certain constituencies (like Hispanic voters) that traditionally have favored the Democratic Party and an unwillingness on the part of a growing number of younger women to relinquish their "sexual autonomy".
But the golden age of celebrity culture in the noughties was dependent on the growth of a new constituency: the "soft" celebrity consumer.
Ruy Teixeira, an analyst of demographic trends at the Century Foundation, said a lasting Republican majority was always unrealistic in light of the continuing growth in Democratic-leaning constituencies, including Hispanic and Asian immigrants, working women and upscale professionals.
While demographic trends suggest the continued growth of pro-Democratic constituencies and the continued decline of core Republican voters, particularly married white Christians, there is no guarantee that demography is destiny.
The impetus for this growth comes from multiple constituencies.
The shifting allegiance of the better-educated – together with the growth of such pro-Democratic constituencies as single women, Hispanics and African-Americans — has been a crucial factor in the revival of the Democratic Party as a fully competitive force in presidential elections.
It promises to bring growth and prosperity either to their constituency, or to marginal ones, or to both.
Between his government and Modi's, Ramesh said, there was a strain of continuity, a constituency devoted to economic growth at all costs.
