A fistful of hope

If there is a binding narrative to these five assembly election verdicts,it is that they made cold sense — these results were not forced by the brute power of large party machines. In West Bengal,the Trinamool Congress ended the Left’s 34-year-long regime in one heady day. Tamil Nadu overthrew a couple of well-worn,patronising ideas about the electorate — that flamboyant corruption and nepotism of the kind practised by the DMK do not matter to the average voter,so long as they are placated by free consumer durables and housing schemes. Whether or not Jayalalithaa has positioned herself as a genuine alternative to that kind of politics,the magnitude of her victory will be a moderating factor against the kind of unaccountability the DMK cloaked itself in. And Assam resisted the compartmentalising of its vote by political gamers,and returned the Congress,under Tarun Gogoi,back to power,endorsing his moves towards lasting peace in the state.

Apart from Bengal,there was no sense of an ideological face-off — they simply went with the party that would better address the aspirations of a buoyant,hopeful electorate. Even in Bengal,the Left was suckerpunched because it failed to embody that desire for change. Kerala saw a much more narrow fight — the Left can certainly take some comfort in the fact that they came this close to bucking the UDF-LDF see-saw,and that their overall defeat is less of a conclusive writing off by their voters. As for the Congress,which has been deeply invested in all five arenas,these results have been both heartening and cautionary in equal parts — the coalition has been battered in Tamil Nadu and it has swept Bengal,and the party by itself has notched up an impressive victory in Assam. Again,it needs to learn to behave like the centre of a durable coalition — give the Trinamool a reason to stick around for the long haul. Its behaviour with the DMK has shown that a politics of coalition expediency sways nobody.

Voters have also shown they have little patience for also-rans and they are deeply aware of the value of their ballot. There has been in this verdict absolute disdain for anyone who would trivialise what they see as their core concerns — that is something we must celebrate.