Since independence, the Congress and the Left parties, which together ruled West Bengal till 2011 when Trinamool Congress wrested power from the Left front after 34-year rule, will be absent in the new Assembly for the first time. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, has commented on Monday that she would have preferred the Left to be there in opposition instead of the BJP. The Left and the Congress have ceded the entire opposition space to the BJP in West Bengal.
DMK is going to form a government in Tamil Nadu after a gap of ten years. Stalin, the DMK president, could achieve a decisive victory for the party in the absence of his renowned father, late Karunanidhi. DMK and AIADMK headed by J Jayalalithaa were winning alternatively after the Congress ceased to be a force in Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa could win for the second consecutive term in 2016 but she could not survive the five year period. DMK won 155 seats in the 234 seat Assembly.
Congress was ruling in the early years after independence as it did in almost all the other States except Kerala. Congress was in power in Tamil Nadu from 1952 to 1967. DMK came to power for the first time in 1967 and it won in the subsequent elections in 1971. MG Ramachandran, second in command in the DMK, caused a split in the party by forming his out outfit called Anna DMK. MGR became chief minister for the first time after 1977 elections. Anna DMK won again in 1980 elections also. MGR won for the third time in 1984. DMK came back to power in 1989. Anna DMK won again in 1991 and Jayalalithaa became the chief minister. DMK came back again in 2006. AIADMK won in 2011 and 2016.
The BJP will have no presence in the new Kerala Assembly. The lone Nemom seat the BJP had in the last Assembly could not be retained.
