Kamal Ghorui
Results are out, and they reveal a season of discontent. When three of four large states dislodge incumbents with firm mandates, something’s broken on the ground, from east to south, and maybe elsewhere. BJP’s eyed Bengal for years, but cultural and ideological barriers against it were always considered too high. Until they weren’t. Tamil Nadu had been a two-party game of musical chairs for almost 60 years. Now a third player, a political greenhorn, has been ushered in with a landslide. Sans a vote, these changes would be considered revolutionary. But since we are a democracy, and the largest at that, all parties must introspect.
To give credit where it’s due, BJP’s sweep of Bengal is largely down to dogged determination. It takes more than astute salesmanship for an ‘outsider’ to become the alternative to ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’. When it failed to get a majority on its own, in 2024 LS polls, many thought the party would lose some of its scrappiness.
But it’s gone on to win poll after assembly poll – Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Bihar, and now Assam and Bengal – with vast margins.
TVK’s rise in TN is puzzling at first. TN is one of India’s fastest growing state economies – 10.8% in 2025-26. What reason did voters have to punish the incumbent? And why did they cast their lot with Vijay, an actor, and his two-year-old untested party? Stardom doesn’t explain it, because Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have tried and faltered at politics in recent years. What’s carried Vijay aloft is his focus on youth, and real issues like jobs and education, rather than Dravidian identity politics. Even in Kerala, where the switch from LDF to UDF is less unexpected, these ground issues have shaped the mandate.
Which brings us back to the need for introspection across parties. Why are voters unhappy? Because their key aspiration – an environment in which they can improve their lot with better health, education and employment – isn’t fulfilled. And states can’t deliver it because their finances are compromised by a growing number of freebies. As Economic Survey points out, just the unconditional cash transfers to women now amount to Rs 1.7L crore. And because such handouts are politically expedient, the number of states offering them has grown five-fold.
Every party in the latest election cycle promised monthly doles to women and unemployed youth, although that would leave little spare cash for development. Even Supreme Court flagged the growing ‘freebie culture’ in Feb. It isn’t easy to stop, but if BJP, which now governs most of the large states, takes a firm stand against competitive populism, change is possible. It should bite the bullet.
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