One thing common for all of them is how to deliver their extravagant promises to the electorate and how to find resources. The voters want immediate results. There would be challenges, more so for leaders like Mamata and Jayalalithaa who also nurse national ambitions. Except Sonowal, the other four are non- BJP chief ministers.

For Mamata Banerjee, the big margin might have been very exciting but along with that comes huge expectations. The biggest challenge for Didi would be to tackle the financial burden the state has been facing for the past five years. Her attempts to get a special package for West Bengal have not been successful either with the UPA or the NDA. According to West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, the debt has gone up to Rs 3.34 lakh crore from Rs 2 lakh crore in May 2011 when she took charge as CM. The debt obligations would come in the way of delivering her promises. Where will she find money for the freebees she has promised?

The second challenge is to attract investments from national and international investors. Bengal held global investors meet last year but follow up needs to be done. The economy also needs to be boosted. On the political side, she has to ensure that the Left and the Congress do not pick up at least until the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and establish that there is no alternative to TMC rule in West Bengal. She would also need to take action against those ministers and party men whose names have been dragged in scams like Sardha. On the legal side, the scams still remain.

Jaya too has the problem of delivering the tall promises she had made during the campaign. In her first file signed after taking charge as CM, Jaya waived crop loans up to March 31, 2016 payable to co-operative banks. This will incur an Rs 5,780 crore burden on her government. Jayalalithaa’s second order was to provide 100 units of free power for all households in the state. This will entail an additional payout of Rs 1,607 crore as grant to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO). She also ordered closure of 500 state-run retail liquor outlets and cut short working hours of bars. Politically, she may not have a smooth sailing in Assembly where the DMK is poised to function as a belligerent opposition. The DMK will give her a tough time in the legislature as well as outside. Moreover her Disproportionate Assets case is still pending with the Supreme Court.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has to do a fine balancing act between various factions. The succession was smooth even though there were murmurs from the rival faction. Vijayan’s first task is to ensure law and order, particularly after the killing of two BJP workers recently. The new government may face cash constraints for capital and development expenditures because just three expenditure heads — salaries, pensions and interest payments – amounted to over two-thirds of the state's total budgeted revenue of Rs.84,000 crore for this fiscal. Vijayan will also have to re-look at over 800 decisions of the previous government, and the controversial liquor policy. But the biggest challenge will be how to erase his alleged personal shaky past in the SNC Lavalin multi-crore rupees scam when he was the state's power minister in 1997.

BJP’ s first chief minister in Assam, Sarbrananda Sonowal has the biggest challenge of maintaing the momentum till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, the BJP got seven out of 14 seats and this time with the party in power, it has to move up. The second is to contain fringe elements as he had maintained that the BJP was secular in Assam. The third serious challenge is the illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Maintaining law and order, keeping the allies happy and finding money for development works, are the other challenges.

Puducherry chief minister V. Narayanaswamy is an old warhorse and an experienced Congressman but this is the first time he has become the chief minster. Winning Puducherry is the silver lining for the Congress, which is demoralized. Though it is a small state, it is politically important. His installation as chief minister has begun with dissent within the local unit. He should try and take every faction along. Puducherry has only one Lok Sabha seat.

The day they have assumed charge, these chief ministers have to start working for the 2019 polls to sustain their popularity. In another three years, they would have crossed the mid way and people might begin to get impatient. Mamata has been talking of a federal front with other non- BJP, non-Congress chief ministers and has already been making efforts along with her counter parts Nitish Kumar (Bihar) and Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) to challenge Modi. They have to be on the right side of the Centre while criticizing `the BJP. It is often said that in politics one week is long. Next Lok Sabha polls are three years away. So who can predict? (IPA Service)