Sunset for Satraps

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to a historic triumph in West Bengal for the first time since Independence and scored a hattrick of victories in Assam, the Congress ousted the Left in Kerala, and an upstart Tamil movie heartthrob dismantled the Dravidian duopoly in Tamil Nadu in landmark assembly elections that raised existential questions for three of India’s powerful regional satraps. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Nitin Nabin arrive to celebrate the victory in the asembly elections at the BJP HQ o in New Delhi, (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)The landslide victories for the BJP – especially the one in a province that has never warmed to the overtures of the political right since 1947 – steady the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, buoy his governance and ideological agenda, and erase any doubts over his enduring national appeal and stature as India’s tallest politician. “The Lotus blooms in West Bengal! The 2026 West Bengal assembly elections will be remembered forever. People’s power has prevailed and the BJP’s politics of good governance has triumphed,” he posted on X. The setbacks for Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu, and Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala deepen the crisis in the Opposition, hurt three of India’s most vocal proponents of federalism, rob the INDIA bloc of the largest and second-largest state under its control, and indicate that a brand of politics based solely on welfare handouts had run its course. These elections – coming roughly halfway through Modi’s third term – were also an opportunity for regional parties that had greater success than the Congress in stalling the BJP’s electoral juggernaut. But three opposition chief ministers were voted out – Banerjee and Stalin even lost their own seats – in an election that turned into a referendum on the regional parties seeking a second straight term in Tamil Nadu, a third straight term in Kerala, and a fourth straight term in West Bengal. “Defeating Mamata Banerjee was crucial. This is Mamata Banerjee’s retirement from politics,” BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari said while distributing sweets after defeating the CM from Bhabanipur. He also won from his bastion of Nandigram. In Bengal, Banerjee found that her coalition of women, Muslims and rural poor had unravelled as the BJP managed to pull off an unprecedented level of Hindu consolidation across castes amid a fragmentation of Muslim votes. The heavy-handed rent-seeking by TMC henchmen, long considered an inevitable part of daily life in Bengal, birthed resentment in urban areas and among the middle-classes that booted Banerjee’s party even from its erstwhile citadel of Kolkata. Among women, the pull of Banerjee’s personal popularity and her welfare architecture proved more limited than in 2021. In an election marked by the dubious disenfranchisement of 2.71 million electors and never-seen-before deployment of central forces, the BJP used developmental promises, welfare outreach and communal polarisation to cross the 200 seat mark while pulling votes from Dalit and tribal communities. “More than 100 seats the BJP looted…It is an immoral victory, not a moral victory. It is loot, loot, loot. We will bounce back,” a visibly agitated Banerjee said. But the stunning reversal of fortunes in West Bengal had to share political space with the tectonic changes in Tamil Nadu, where actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay Chandrasekar’s newly formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) steamrolled its way to becoming the single-largest party in Tamil Nadu – marking the most impressive debut in the southern state since Tamil talisman MG Ramachandran in 1977. The 51-year-old actor is now within striking distance of a majority in the 234-member assembly – his party was 11 short at11:30pm, with plenty of suitors floating around. He is set to become the first chief minister to not hail from either of the two Dravidian majors since Tamil Nadu was formed in 1967. Unable to rein in local-level corruption and stung by allegations of dynastism for elevating his son Udhayanidhi as deputy chief minister, Stalin found his coalition collapsing even in the DMK’s citadel of Chennai. But his party held on to the second spot in the state, ahead of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which was hurt by a lacklustre campaign shorn of pan-state leaders and no message electric enough to match the charisma of Vijay. “In my political public life, I have seen great victories; I have also faced defeats.Therefore, I am one who acts with the understanding that ideals and policies are what matter most, not just victories and defeats. Thus, the political journey of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will continue without faltering,” Stalin said. The only silver lining for the Opposition was the United Democratic Front’s (UDF’s) handsome victory in Kerala, defying some pollsters who had predicted a close contest. Riding on a disciplined campaign and simmering anti-incumbency against Vijayan’s 10-year-long rule, the UDF reclaimed votes in central Kerala it had lost in 2021, consolidated the Christian and Muslim communities behind it, and picked up a chunk of Hindu votes in the southern part of the state. Done in by rising aspiration, local resentment and flip-flops on ideological issues, the Left now finds itself bundled out of power in the only state it governed. It is now without a government in any state for the first time in more than half a century. The BJP also impressed in its victory in Assam under chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who crafted a sharp campaign based on his financial handouts, infrastructure development and anti-migrant pitch. The party-led alliance crossed 100 seats in the 126-member assembly for the first time in history.