The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made a historic triumph in West Bengal, marking its first victory since India's independence. The party also scored a hattrick of victories in Assam, while the Congress ousted the Left in Kerala, and an upstart Tamil movie heartthrob dismantled the Dravidian duopoly in Tamil Nadu in landmark assembly elections.
The landslide victories for the BJP, especially in West Bengal, 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 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 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.
