Saffron rises, Mamata falls; Stalin's sun also sets
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues its winning streak. The results of the five assembly elections on Monday showed that the party has dethroned Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, retained its dominance in Assam and, along with its allies, has regained a majority in the Union Territory of Puducherry. Although it is still struggling in the far south, the party has managed to open its account of seats in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala assemblies. Contrary to such trends, the ruling parties in Tamil Nadu and Kerala - the DMK and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) - have been thrashed by voters, that too against the odds. On the other hand, the only positive development for the Congress party, the main rival of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, has been its impressive performance in Kerala. The United Democratic Front (UDF) it leads has managed to secure a clear majority in that state and topple Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's LDF government after 10 years.
Elections to five assembly seats were held last month. While the voting process in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Assam was a single-day process, the Election Commission of India conducted two-phase voting in West Bengal in view of the challenges faced by the law and order situation. The confusion and court challenges created by the Trinamool Congress over the SIR exercise and the fear of widespread violence in the state during the polling days were being expressed. To counter this, the Election Commission also deployed central police forces on a large scale and deployed central observers in double the usual number. Although the scale of violent activities has not been very large due to such arrangements, the order for fresh polling in an entire assembly constituency (Falta) shows that even in the Election Commission's difficulty, there must have been some error somewhere. Mamata Banerjee is blaming the alleged collusion of the central government and the Election Commission for her party's defeat, but the reality is that such disorders had developed in her government, which has been running for the last 15 years, that voters chose the path that would end the rule of the Trinamool Congress Party by voting in a record number (92.1 percent). This is the first time that the Bharatiya Janata Party has come to power in West Bengal directly on its own. While this achievement of this party is truly commendable, it needs to be shown humility instead of calling it a scapegoat. Humility alone can make the kind of good governance possible for West Bengal, which the people voted for with a sigh of relief.
Like West Bengal, the election results in Tamil Nadu have proved to be a big shock for the DMK, which has been ruling for five years. Film actor 'Thalapathy' Vijay's party TVK (Tamilaga Vetri Kadgam) has ended the bickering (attrition) between the two Dravidian parties - DMK and AIADMK - that have dominated Tamil politics for more than half a century, making it possible for a third party to enter the fray. The success of Vijay (full name Joseph Chandrasekhar Vijay), known as 'Jana Nayak', is miraculous in that while the TVK candidates directly defeated Chief Minister DMK Stalin in the election arena, they also gave a tough fight to his son and Deputy Chief Minister Udayagiri Stalin in the DMK stronghold of Chepauk. TVK may need external help to form a stable government. This help is likely to be provided by the AIADMK (AIADMK) front. Overall, there was a lot of misinformation about the role of the Election Commission in these assembly elections, but the results show that the Commission's efforts in making free and fair elections possible were largely successful. Politicians who have been in power for a long time find it very difficult to accept a public mandate against them. But they have to accept it eventually. That is the real beauty of democracy.
