A certain breed of liberals has always tried to convince the masses that the lotus is a poisonous flower. Now, they might seek to persuade the same masses that the whistle symbolises eve-teasing at its worst.
Facile remarks aside, this round of assembly elections has delivered two tectonic shifts in just one day. A few weeks ago, the authors had written about the five Presidency districts of West Bengal that made Mamata Bannerjee, and asking whether the same five districts would be her undoing. Exactly that, and more has been proven today as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obliterates TMC bastions and storms to power in Bengal for the first time in independent India's history. A few thousand kilometres down south, superstar Vijay has shocked virtually every self-confessed political pundit as his brand new party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), decimates Dravidian bastions in Tamil Nadu.
Both the astonishing performances destroy long-held political beliefs. Both are victories carved against all odds. Both were underdogs that refused to blink. And both have been beneficiaries of the hubris of their principal rivals. Don't forget, the BJP had become arrogant prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The voters gave a jolt to the party - who knows, a better-led Congress might even have spelt defeat for it. Today, even as a section of the "liberal commentariat" moans the "death of democracy", many Indians celebrate the two unseemly victories as yet another manifestation of the success of Indian democracy, albeit with its own unique flaws.
Why do the authors say this? For one, the spectrum of opinions. The future chief minister of Tamil Nadu (in all probability), Vijay, has stated repeatedly that the DMK is his main political opponent and the BJP is his main ideological opponent. BJP supporters have not liked such remarks. But that is the strength of the ordinary Indian voter. She refuses to follow the "narrative" set by the elite. In West Bengal, the opposition BJP leader, Suvendu Adhikari, and many others stated repeatedly that the 2026 elections were an existential battle for Hindus in the state. The statement was so politically incorrect that "secular liberals" were frothing at the mouth. But once again, the voters have decided to be politically incorrect. Politics has become so polarised and coarse that some analysts have already pronounced the beginning of the end of "Bangla" culture.
Beyond such hyperbole, the reality remains that the TMC governed poorly and the voters punished the party. The surprise is that the BJP was successful in convincing ordinary Bangla voters that it is not a party of outsiders. Even more surprisingly, it broke through seven decades of suspicions. Way back in 1952, a leader called Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had formed the Bhartiya Jan Sangh that became the BJP in 1980. Back in 1952, the Jan Sangh had won four Lok Sabha seats in the state. But since then, voters of West Bengal had preferred not to touch the BJP even with a barge pole. Even as recently as 2016, the BJP won merely three seats in the assembly elections. In that context, this sweeping victory of the BJP breaks all old patterns of voter behaviour.
The victory of superstar Vijay has also broken an array of old and established patterns of voter behaviour. For close to six decades, Dravidian parties DMK and AIADMK enjoyed a stranglehold over the electorate. Sure, there have been many small caste-based parties in the state with their own loyal vote banks. But they have usually allied with either of the two big powers. In 2006, another superstar, Vijaykanth, had thrown his hat in the ring. He did well, but not well enough and gradually faded away. Rajnikanth nursed his own ambitions but eventually decided not to take the electoral plunge. Kamal Hasan, too, launched his own party but came a cropper and became a junior partner of the DMK, which rewarded the star by sending him to the Rajya Sabha. Many analysts had concluded that the era of film stars winning elections in Tamil Nadu was over. Not surprisingly, almost everyone was sceptical when Vijay joined the fray. But he has proven that old patterns can be breached. Even more important, Vijay has broken through caste barriers in a state where caste calculations have always played a major role. The young voters who voted overwhelmingly for Vijay have set aside these considerations in their quest for change.
The authors will write in more detail in a day when all the details are out in the open. But the immediate message is threefold: old voting patterns are not sacrosanct. Second, the youth are no longer in awe of dynasties. The fate of Gaurav Gogoi in Assam, of Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar, of Abhishek Bannerjee in his fortress Diamond Harbour, of MK Stalin and his son Udaynidhi in Tamil Nadu, of the Hoodas in Haryana and of the Thackeray clan in Maharashtra is telling evidence of that. Third: it is unwise to gratuitously and needlessly insult and denigrate Hindu culture, symbols and aesthetics.
(Yashwant Deshmukh is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of CVoter Foundation, and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
