There will be no doubt that in days to come, as Bengal's fire-brand Ms Mamata Banerjee takes over the State, which gets 'new independence' after Left rule over four decades, according to her, there will be tough demands on the Centre to help her fulfil all her 'paribartan' programmes. Tactfully, she has requested the Congress, the junior partner, to join her Government. West Bengal needs more industrialisation and jobs, and even Mamata cannot give in to Maoist thrusts. She has to demonstrate purposeful governance in no time.

Ms. Jayalalithaa will form the AIADMK Government with her party alone gaining a substantial majority with 152 seats while the total strength of her alliance is 204 in the 234-member House. This was the result of Ms. Jayalalithaa's astutely crafted alliance and she had her ears on the ground all the time, something which neither DMK nor media had grasped. Her stated priorities are to maintain law and order, put the state finances (with a debt of Rs. one lakh crore) in order and focus on development while also fulfilling her election promises.

The DMK-led alliance including Congress (5) and PMK (3) ended with 30 seats. The humiliation is no less for the Congress which had bargained hard with Mr Karunanidhi for 63 seats to contest, and scored 5, a virtual wipe-out, reflecting its share of the people's distaste over the 2G spectrum scam and the party's role as a sullen partner of DMK. In the process, the chronic alliance-switcher Dr Ramadoss of PMK, with 30 seats to fight as Mr Karunanidhi's ally, also suffered badly, bagging a mere three.

Congress spokesmen in New Delhi have 'accepted the result with humility'. What else could they do? Barring Mr Karunanidhi who was elected in Tiruvarur with a clear majority of over 50,000 votes and his son and hitherto deputy CM Mr M K Stalin, who scraped through after a recount, in a city suburb, a score of other ministers lost the contests. The Congress was also virtually swept away in the Jaya wave, the worst performance since 1967 when Congress lost power in the State.

The State Congress under Mr K V Thangkabalu, who was kowtowing to Mr Karunanidhi, and made to bite the dust in Mylapore constituency, had become even more faction-ridden than before — the Vasan, Chidambaram and other groups trying to outdo one another. Nor Mr Rahul Gandhi's forays to galvanise youth congress seemed to have had any impact whatsoever. The party's elder statesman, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, sees the 2011 elections as vote for 'stability and change'.

Perhaps, he views Assam and Kerala as centres of stability while treating West Bengal as victory of Mamata Banerjee (and hopefully helping stability!) while 'humbly' accepting the 'change' in Tamil Nadu. At the Centre, the Congress will have no more problems with Mr Karunanidhi whose 18 partymen would willingly go with UPA's reform and other wishes. The Trinamool Congress may have some new faces in the Manmohan Singh Government.

DMK Supremo Mr Karunanidhi received the results with stoicism saying, 'the people of Tamil Nadu have given me rest'. His agile mind has other things to do. In a way, this can also help end rivalries within the family, especially between the two sons, Messrs. Alagiri and Stalin over succession.

What is remarkable in the outturn is also the charisma of actor Captain Vijaykant, who made an entry into politics in 2006, winning one seat then while all his candidates polled enough votes to build a base, recorded 10 per cent vote share in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and has now captured 33 out of 41 seats for his DMDK - Desiya Murpokku (national democratic) Dravida Kazhagam. His hold helped to swing votes in favour of alliance parties.

Ms. Jayalalithaa, elected from the temple town of Srirangam, expects to fulfil the promises in her election manifesto within a time-frame of 18 months. She said, predictably, that she is taking over 'a totally ruined economy' and would have again to restore fiscal health as she did in 2001-06 and re-make Tamil Nadu 'a leader in many spheres'. At a press conference, she called the result 'victory of people of Tamil Nadu and a victory for democracy', in the same vein that Mamata Banerjee has described hers.

She commended the Election Commission for its 'fantastic job' in conducting free and fair elections. (Conversely, Mr Karunanidhi had many harsh things to say about EC and had even urged Centre to codifying the functions of the Commission so that it would not 'impinge' on the autonomy of states with 'emergency-like' restrictions).

Ms. Jayalalithaa had, among other things, announced in her manifesto, 20 kgs of rice free to BPL families. 20 litres of drinking water a day, expanded health care and several freebies to outmatch Mr Karunanidhi, including laptops for higher class students, free fans and wet grinders and what not,. Her major concern has to be to alleviate the acute power shortage in Tamil Nadu and the daily load-shedding for a few hours in the districts as well as in Chennai.

In the Union Territory of Puducherry, NR Congress and AIADMK in alliance won 20 out of 30 seats ousting the DMK-Congress regime. In Kerala, the Left Front had recovered some lost ground but just fell short of majority though registering still an impressive 68 seats against 72 of the winning Congress-led UDF. Communists have more seats in 140-member Kerala than in West Bengal (63 seats in the 294-member Assembly).

In Tamil Nadu, both CPIM and CPI have acquitted themselves well in their well- preserved pockets, which make them significant for the State's alliance politics. The Left's loss of power in both West Bengal and Kerala is sought to be interpreted abroad as start of 'vanishing' of Red influence. Communist leaders, without minimising the gravity of the setback, assert their continuing 'relevance' in the Indian polity, given the problems of its vast under-class. Nor was it a day of jubilation for the Congress for which the only real gain was in Assam while the size of victory of Didi and Amma could become troubling for rulers in Delhi. (IPA Service)