In these elections, the Indian National Congress (INC) has had a stakes. What was its performance. The score-line for the congress appears to be 4-1.
Lets start with Tamil Nadu. It was a disaster for the Party which was the junior partner with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) with Jayalalitha sweeping the polls. Congress lost in the southern State, made for it riding piggyback on die-hard street fight-fighter Mamta Banerjee in West Bengal. It is for the first time that after 34 years that the Congress has regained political significance throwing out the Marxists.
In these two states, the Party was not the main player but a junior partner with regional parties.
But in Assam and Puducherry, the Party was fighting against the regional forces and in Kerala it was pitted against the old foe-the Marxists.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi enjoying a free-hand brought the Party back to power for the third time and in Kerala, it is all set to rid of the Marxist rule. The not-too-bad performance has come as a psychological boost for the party buffeted on all sides on charges of corruption.
One only hopes, the grand old party (GOP) learns the right lessons from the outcome of these elections particularly in Tamil Nadu. It must have a hard re-look at continuing its alliance with the DMK.
The dismal performance of the DMK is bound to trigger off violent power struggle between the two warring brothers-Deputy Chief Minister Stalin and Alagiri. In a such a scenario, can the Congress continue its marriage of convenience.
Moreover, the family ridden allegations of corruption like the 2-G Spectrum allocation has already caused immense damage. So, Therefore, the DMK has become a liability. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which completes two years in its second term in the next few days need not unduly worry about black-mailing tactics of the DMK with its solid 17 members in the Lok Sabha because the southern regional Party can ill-afford, even attempt to destablise the Manmohan Singh government, for the simple that having lost power in the State, it cannot lose it political clout in New Delhi.