The results of the elections to the four state Assemblies and a Union Territory have come as a shocker for the ruling parties in three big states while the party in power in the fourth and the one in the UT have returned with an increased margin. It is likely to impact the national politics in a way no other state election results have till now.
West Bengal has chosen to experiment with saffron politics for the first time in its history. The state has for the last six decades, elected the Congress, the Communists and the Trinamul Congress in that order and has, this time, picked the BJP. It is the culmination of the efforts the BJP has been making to storm the West Bengal fort for years. Deft planning and impeccable execution have been at the core of the BJP’s strategy in all elections, and West Bengal was no different. This time, they bore fruit.
It must, however, be remembered that about 27 lakh voters in the state were denied their constitutional right to vote in the election for no fault of theirs. The Election Commission deleted their names from the electoral roll citing “logical discrepancies”, a term which even the Supreme Court of India found hard to digest. The mechanism the Election Commission had arranged for redressing their complaints failed to do its job in time, effectively denying them a say in the democratic governance. Even the Supreme Court, which went out of the way to help the EC get out of the mess it had created, refused to come to their rescue. The moral deficit these collective actions have caused will weigh on the results in the state.
The surprise element in these elections is the arrival of actor-politician Vijay and his nascent Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) on the political scene of Tamil Nadu, capturing power at the first go. The ruling DMK was at the receiving end which suffered the double whammy of its president and chief minister M. K. Stalin losing his own seat, a traditional party stronghold. Mr Vijay’s success is unparalleled in the political history of not just the state but of the country. A man with no political or administrative experience, Mr Vijay will have to learn on the job how to steer the destinies of more than seven crore people.
The Left Democratic Front in Kerala has got the worst drubbing in its history when it was thrown out of power after successive wins in 2016 and 2021: the alliance that won 99 of the 140 seats last time was confined to 35 while the Congress-led United Democratic Front hit a three-digit mark, winning 102 seats. It was a shock defeat for the LDF, too, as it was hoping to romp home on account of the development and welfare measures it had introduced in the last 10 years. It will now be up to the Congress, as the leader of the alliance, to follow up on the promises it has made to the people. While the BJP made a clean sweep of Assam elections, the NDA coasted to a comfortable majority in Puducherry, earning another consecutive term.
The elections have unseated three chief ministers who were in the vanguard of the national Opposition and were the bulwarks against the BJP-led Hindutva politics: Mamata Banerjee, M.K. Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan. They were all part of the INDIA alliance that proved its collective strength in the Lok Sabha recently. While Ms Banerjee will be replaced by a BJP nominee, Mr Stalin’s replacement has not yet made his approach public yet. The incoming Kerala chief minister, a Congress nominee, does not alter the equation. The INDIA alliance will have to rewire its own politics if it is to remain relevant in Indian politics.