Assembly elections: Mamata and Jayalalithaa win big, Cong just ahead in Kerala

NDTV

New Delhi, 13 May 2011: Two women have brought in Green revolutions - one in the East, the other in the South. That, along with the historic rout of the Left in West Bengal, is today’s story. 

 

Mamata Banerjee has made history by throwing out the Communists, who ruled West Bengal for 34 continuous years. Her Trinamool Congress is headed for a landslide win and Kolkata will have a new Chief Minister in Didi.

 

 

Bouquets are filling the Trinamool Congress office in Kolkata and the green of the party is in the air. So huge is Mamata’s win that the Trinamool and allies look in position to win well over 200 of the 294 Assembly seats in West Bengal. The huge victory is powered by the Trinamool’s stupendous performance and partner Congress will have to factor this in the equation of the two parties even at the Centre.   

 

In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK’s green is all over. J Jayalalithaa too is headed for a big win. In the 234-seat Assembly, the AIADMK and allies are leading in over 190 seats. Jayalalithaa comes back to power after five years. This will be her third stint as Chief Minister.

 

The entanglement of its leaders in the 2G scam seems to have hit the DMK the hardest in this electoral battle, an issue that Jayalalithaa used as her main weapon against bête noir Karunanidhi. The DMK’s poor performance is likely to further hit its bargaining power with partner Congress at the Centre.

 
In Kerala, the Left and the Congress-led front have been locked in a neck and neck battle and this match is going down to the wire. Over some rounds of counting now, the Congress-led UDF has been ahead by the skin of its teeth, leading in 73 constituencies to the CPI(M)-led LDF’s 67 seats.

 

In the 30-member Assembly in Puducherry, the Congress-led alliance is ahead in 13 seats while the N Rangaswamy Congress-led combine is leading in 11. 

 

In Assam, the ruling Congress is set for a comeback. It will better last time’s performance, comfortably leading in over 70 constituencies of the 126-seat Assembly, with its ally, the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) looking set to add about 14 seats to the kitty.