The Ideas Page: Opposition should go back to drawing board, reimagine politics, rewire machine 13 TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2026 JourNalISm of CouraGE NEw DELHI, LATE CITy, 28 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) l www.indianexpress.com DA I Ly F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O w , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A WeSt BeNGAL (293 seats*) BJP TMC 2021 2021 206 81 VERDICT 2026 77 INC TMC BJP 3.0% (3.0%) CPI(M) 159 TVK BJP 3 102 BJP+ INC+ AIUDF OTHERS 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 2021 41 AIADMK+ UDF 26.1% (42.7%) PUDUCHeRRY (30 SeAtS) AINRC+: 16 (36%) INC+: 6 (32%) TVK: 2 (NA) OTH: 6 (15%) 34.9% (NA) 0 46.0% (39.5%) 79 BJP 2 31 BJP+ 11.4% (12.4%) VOTE SHARE 21 1 16 0 INC+ Others 29.9% (45.4%) 7.6% (11.5%) 4.5% (4.7%) 99 LDF Others 31.4% (45.8%) LDF 2021 75 DMK+ ASSAM (126 SeAtS) UDF 102 35 53 VOTE SHARE 45.9% (38.0%) VOTE SHARE 2021 74 — 2 INC 40.8% (48.0%) 2021 KeRALA (140 SeAtS) AIDMK+ 107 4 0 DMK+ 2021 2021 02 215 TVK OTHERS 2021 tAMIL NADU (234 SeAtS) 12.6% (2.7%) AIUDF 30.24% (30.51%) 5.5% (9.29%) Others VOTE SHARE 48.11% (47.9%) 16.15% (12.3%) Note: Leads as of 12.00 am; 2021 vote share in brackets; Source: EC; *Full repoll to be held in Falta, West Bengal on May 21; TVK contested its first election BJP wave sinks Mamata, Vijay rides Tamil tide Assam returns Himanta, Congress routs Left to reclaim Kerala Mamata loses her seat, says ‘loot, loot, loot... an immoral victory’ From Gangotri to Ganga Sagar, only the lotus blooms: Modi Manoj C G & Jatin Anand New Delhi, May 4 stOrMING the last Opposition citadel in the east, the BJP Monday trounced the ruling tMC in West Bengal to end Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year rule and returned to power in Assam with a landslide win for a third consecutive term. Banerjee was among the losers, defeated in Bhabanipur by BJP’s suvendu Adhikari whoalsowonfromNandigram. tamil Nadu delivered the otherstunningverdictasactorturned-politicianJosephVijay’s tVK, a new entrant, neared the halfway mark in the 234member house, surprising the Dravidian majors and toppling the DMK-led government of M KstalinwholostfromKolathur. Kerala opted for change, votingintheCongress-ledUDF to end the run of the LDF led by Pinarayi Vijayan, the last Left Business as Usual By EP UNNY CM Mamata Banerjee on way to a counting centre in Kolkata. ExPRESS Atri Mitra Kolkata, May 4 government in the country. the Union territory of PuducherryreposedfaithintheNDA comprising the All India Nr Congress and the BJP. the one unmistakable message from the results of the Assembly elections was that of »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ASSAM Polarisation, Himanta’s popularity take BJP to absolute majority Sukrita Baruah Guwahati, May 4 FOr MANy who had read the writing on the wall during the Assam election, the question wasnotwhethertheBJPwould return for a historic third term in power, but rather by how much. With himanta Biswa sarma at its helm, the party has surged to its strongest position inthestateyet,crossingthe100 mark with its allies in the 126-member Assam Assembly. A decade after it first came to power in Assam, which also marked the first time it had ever come to power in a Northeastern state, the BJP has secured an absolute majority in thestate.Inboth2016and2021, it had secured 60 seats on its own and formed the govern- Prime Minister narendra Modi with BJP national president nitin nabin at the party headquarters in new Delhi, Monday. PRAVEEN KHANNA SIR in Bengal: TMC won 13 of 20 seats with highest voter deletions Damini Nath & Sandeep Singh New Delhi, May 4 hOWDIDthespecialIntensive revision (sIr) of electoral rolls play out in the West Bengal results? While the final numbers are still being firmed up, two earlytrendsaretelling:ofthe20 seats that saw the highest numberofdeletions(seecharts) »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SAMSERGANJ 74,775 AITC AITC 7,587 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 6 1 1 55,420 AITC AITC 18,960 Finetuning message for each region, how BJP breached TMC bastions -36,460 BHAGABANGOLA 8,914 47,493 AITC AITC 56,407 RAGHUNATHGANJ 46,100 AITC AITC 40,555 -5,545 METIABURUZ AITC AITC 87,879 48,300 39,579 *VICTORy MARGIN LOwER OR HIGHER THAN SIR DELETIONS IN THAT SEAT INSIDE TVK chief Vijay celebrates the poll victory, in Chennai. PTI tuency by 8,795 votes to tVK’s V s Babu — marking a rare instance of a sitting Chief Minister being unseated on home turf. In essence, tamil Nadu is witnessing the rise of its first truly new political force in five decades — not a faction, not a breakaway, not a rearrangement of the familiar Dravidian »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WEST BENGAL -67,188 LALGOLA Chennai, May 4 ment with its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), along with the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in 2016 and the United People’s 23 Votes 2021 2026 2026 Difference* deleted winner winner margin Arun Janardhanan KERALA ExPANDING FOOTPRINT, PAN-INDIA STAMP: THE MANy GAINS FOR BJP PAGe 6 THREE KEy CMs OUT, OPP BLOC SHRINKS, NExT wORRy — PUNJAB, HIMACHAL PAGe 14 ExPLAINED: NEw CM’S INBOx — THE STATE OF STATE ECONOMIES PAGe 20 ASSAM-BJP TEMPLATE wILL GO NATIONAL PAGe 12 »FULL COVERAGE PAGES 5-14, 20 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ravik Bhattacharya & Atri Mitra Kolkata, May 4 the BJP’s decisive victory in West Bengal, ending 15 years of Mamata Banerjee’s rule, was emphatic in its spread across the state. If the party held on to its bastion in North Bengal, it made inroads into south Bengal, including the Presidency division which was so far the trinamool Congress’s impregnable fortress. the BJP also regained its dominance in the tribal belt of Junglemahal, changing its messaging as per the issues of the three regions. South Bengal; voted in 2nd phase this region comprises the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur. PARTHA PAUL Presidency division, including Kolkata,howrah,Nadia,North and south 24 Parganas, which has long been considered a tMC stronghold. It is also the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l younG VoTerS Are ASSerTinG PoliTiCAlly for CHAnGe Congress-led UDF ends Pinarayi’s 10-year run, BJP wins three seats Shaju Philip Thiruvananthapuram, May 4 the CONGress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) stormed back to power in Kerala, ending a decade in Opposition with a commanding 102-seat victory in the 140member Assembly. riding a powerful anti-incumbency wave, the alliance dismantledseveralCPI(M)bastions, reducing the ruling Left DemocraticFront(LDF),which was seeking an unprecedented Seats First disruption since MGR: How Vijay caught imagination of voters IN A result that has already rewritten tamil Nadu’s political grammar, actor-politician Vijay’stamilagaVettriKazhagam (tVK) won 107 seats in the Assembly elections, ahead of the DMK (60) and AIADMK (47), even as Chief Minister M K stalin lost his Kolathur consti- nDA inDiA AAP TVK l Seatswithmostdeletionsduringadjudication TAMIL NADU Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma with party leaders and supporters in Guwahati. PTI l Whohasthestates As the trinamool Congress (tMC) trailed behind the BJP throughthedayinWestBengal, the final nail came as the day ended — party chief and outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lost to the BJP’s suvendu Adhikari by over 15,000 votes in Bhabanipur. speaking to reporters outside the counting centre, Banerjee alleged that the BJP had “looted more than 100 seats”, adding that it was an “immoral” and “illegal” victory. “BJP looted more than 100 seats.theelectionCommission is the BJP’s commission,” she said, adding that she had com- plained to the chief electoral officer, but no action was taken. “Do you think this is a victory? It is an immoral victory, not a moral victory. Whatever the election Commission has done, along with the central forces, the Prime Minister and homeMinister,istotallyillegal. It is loot, loot, loot. We will bounce back,” she said. While Banerjee led in the earlier rounds of counting, her final tally was 58,812 votes. Adhikari,theLeaderofOpposition in the outgoing Assembly, bagged 73,917 votes. BanerjeereachedthecountingcentreatsakhawatMemorial Government Girls’ high school at about 3.45 pm, and Congress leader V D Satheesan celebrates his party’s victory in Kerala, Monday. PTI third-consecutive term under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, to just 35 seats. the LDF defeat means no state in the country now has a Left government — a first in nearly five decades. the BJP, meanwhile, managedtosecurethreeseatstoput up its best showing in an Assembly election in Kerala. While CM Vijayan retained his Dharmadam seat, 13 of his Cabinet colleagues were defeated. they included prominent faces of the LDF »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 First-time, young voters, high turnout: Gen Z, restless, restive and aspiring for opportunities, asked for more Neerja Chowdhury New Delhi, May 4 eACh OF the verdicts in West Bengal, tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala is distinctive. But taken together, read with their record turnouts,theysendapowerful message: the young voters, restless and restive,worriedabouttheir present, and wanting a better future, are asserting politically for change. Many of them are unencumbered — or shrugging—theburdensofthe past. In West Bengal, the firsttime voter this year would have been an infant when the feisty Mamata Banerjee stormed the red Fortress in 2011 or transformed the Brigade Parade Ground into a poster of resistance. In tamil Nadu, the under30s, fatigued by the DMK-AIDMK binary, which is all they have seen, found in actor Vijay's tVK a new vehicle that could drive E. TVK supporters celebrate in Chennai, Monday. PTI downtheroadtochange.Inthe south, there is only one other example of a leader occupying the CM’s chair within months offormingtheparty—thatwas Nt rama rao in Andhra Pradesh,alsofromtheworldofcelluloid, who came to power in the wake of humiliating words uttered by the then PM rajiv Gandhi against the then CM t Anjaiah. In hindsight, the 2026 election has been about Gen Z. It is also about “Dil Maange More” »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2