Assembly polls 2016: BJP wins big in Assam, Left in Kerala; Mamata, Jaya retain power in WB, TN

Possibly riding on personal popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP scripted history in the 2016 assembly elections held in four major states and one Union Territory.

The BJP stormed to power in Assam and formed its first ever government led by Sarbananda Sonowal in this northeastern state by dethroning Congress. In Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the BJP made impressive gains in percentage of votes polled in its favour.

The Congress could take solace only in Puducherry where it managed to get a simple majority along with DMK to wrest power from AINRC headed by N Rangaswami, a former Congressman.

While the Left made a comeback in Kerala, the BJP also made history when O Rajagopal, 86, was elected from Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, becoming the first ever BJP member to enter the Kerala Assembly.

West Bengal

Trinamool Congress led by its firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee, who won from Bhabanipur constituency by 25,301 votes, bagged 211 of the 294 seats, while Congress-Left combine got 76 seats.

TMC had secured 184 seats in 2011 Assembly election, when it had fought in alliance with Congress.

Congress, however, did better than its Left partners securing 44 seats. Of the Left partners, CPI-M bagged 26 seats, RSP-3, CPI-1 and Forward Bloc-2.

The BJP, which had one seat in the last assembly, bagged three seats this time with its state president Dilip Ghosh winning from Kharagpur by defeating Congress veteran Gyan Singh Sohanpal who had won the seat nine times in a row.

The other two seats won by BJP were - Madarihat and Baishnabnagar. However, Rahul Sinha, BJP national secretary, and the party's lone member in the outgoing assembly Shamik Bhattacharya lost. Rupa Ganguly, actor-turned-politician and BJP’s state Mahila Morcha president, were also defeated.

In Darjeeling hills, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha won three seats.

Assam

The BJP created history in Assam by getting two-thirds majority in the 126-member House and winning 86 seats along with its allies. Led by former Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the BJP won 60 seats, AGP 14 and BPF 12.

BJP had contested on 89 seats, AGP 20 and BPF 13 seats. The Congress led by Tarun Gogoi managed to win only 26 seats.

On the other hand, AIUDF won 13 seats, followed by Independents with only one of them winning.

Three-time chief minister Tarun Gogoi accepted defeat and said that the Congress would play the

role of a constructive Opposition.

Kerala

In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) returned to power, winning 91 of the 140 seats in an election that saw the Congress routed and the BJP entering the Assembly after decades of waiting.

As widely anticipated, LDF led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) unseated the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the May 16 electoral battle.

On its own, the CPI-M bagged 58 seats. In contrast, the entire UDF tally was 47.

LDF made massive inroads in Thrissur, Kannur, Kozhikode, Kollam, Alapuzha and Thiruvananthapuram districts by capturing maximum seats. In Thrissur, out of 13 constituencies, all except one went to LDF. In Kollam all 10 seats were won by LDF.

93-year-old VS Achutanandan, the face of the LDF campaign and CPI(M) polit bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, Thomas Issac, EP Jayarajan and actor Mukesh were among prominent winners in the LDF.

BJP's leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal won from Nemom by defeating CPI (M) MLA V Sivankutty by a margin of 8,671 votes.

Reacting to the massive defeat, Oommen Chandy said the results were a "setback" and called for a deep introspection to determine the causes of UDF’s unexpected rout in the state.

Tamil Nadu

Led by its charismatic leader J Jayalalithaa, the ruling AIADMK bagged a second five-year term in Tamil Nadu by convincingly defeating a divided Opposition and proving wrong exit polls that had predicted its ouster.

"I am overwhelmed by the resounding victory given by the people. My party and I are indebted to the people of Tamil Nadu," an emotive Jayalalithaa said as her party - AIADMK - cruised to victory in 134 of the 232 Assembly seats.

"After 1984, no ruling party in the state has been able to win an election and form the government for a successive term," she said in her victory speech.

The DMK-Congress combine, which had hoped to unseat Jayalalithaa, had to settle for 97 seats, with the Congress tally getting reduced to just eight. A solitary seat went to DMK ally, the Indian Union Muslim League.

More worse than the DMK-Congress defeat was the washout of a six-party alliance led by actor-turned-politician and chief ministerial hopeful A Vijaykanth who himself finished third in his constituency Ulundurpettai.

The PMK, which had for the first time fought in all the constituencies, could not win a single seat. The BJP and its allies, which too contested all the seats, suffered a similar fate.

However, AIADMK also faced some embarrassment when four of its senior ministers lost.

Pondicherry

In a consolation win of sorts for Congress, the party in alliance with DMK won in Puducherry, securing a simple majority of 17 in the 30-member Assembly.

Congress avenged its defeat in the 2011 elections at the hands of AINRC founder N Rangasamy, who broke away from the national party to form his own political outfit and rode it to power, as the ruling party fell by the wayside bagging just eight seats.

Congress, which had contested 21 seats, won in 15. DMK emerged successful in two segments, giving the combine a clear majority as it bucked initial trends of a close fight with the AINRC when counting of the votes polled in the May 16 assembly elections was taken up.

AIADMK, which contested the elections on its own, won four seats.