Editorial: Mandate for change

Actor-turned-politician Vijay’s landmark debut in Tamil Nadu and BJP’s breakthrough in West Bengal signal a major political shift in India

Popular actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay delivering a political blockbuster on his debut — disrupting the six-decade-long duopoly of the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu — and a saffron surge in West Bengal breaching a seemingly impregnable fortress of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress are the two historic messages emerging from the latest round of Assembly elections in the country. Scriptwriters of ‘Thalapathy’, as Vijay is known among his countless fans, could not have come up with such an explosive story that has given a new direction to the State politics, a feat similar to MG Ramachandran becoming the first actor-turned-chief minister nearly five decades ago. Vijay’s two-year-old Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has achieved what his predecessor fellow travellers from the tinsel world — Vijaykanth and Kamal Haasan — could not, and is now all set to steer the destiny of the State that has not elected any party other than the DMK and AIADMK in the last six decades. Like MGR, Vijay too has succeeded in converting his massive fan base into an electoral fighting machine that eventually altered the State’s political grammar. While MGR rode a dramatic split and a welfare-heavy populist wave, Vijay’s honest appeal found resonance among voters, particularly the youth, as it was rooted in the anxieties of everyday struggles, governance fatigue and a promise of corruption-free governance. TVK’s debut win indicates that there is a scope for a third regional force in the State. A blend of Dravidian ideology, Tamil nationalism, secularism and social justice forms the core of Vijay’s brand of politics. In a State that has turned identity into a political science, he is truly an outlier.

The political upheaval unfolding in West Bengal is quite significant, given the tumultuous run-up to the polling that saw a historic turnout. The State is on course to see its first BJP government since Independence as the TMC stares at defeat after 15 years in power, in the first election following a record deletion of voters under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). For the BJP, this victory is particularly sweet as it helps shed the tag of a ‘Hindi heartland party’. The mandate reflects people’s yearning for change as there has been growing resentment over allegations of corruption, lawlessness and economic stagnation. Firebrand Mamata Banerjee was involved in a “do-or-die” battle against the BJP, which left no stone unturned to wrest the State from her powerful grip. The controversy-ridden SIR was used as a weapon to target the TMC by portraying it as a party which feeds on illegal migrants. In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front is set to return to power, dislodging the ruling Left Democratic Front. With this, India is now left with no Left-ruled State. In Assam, the hat-trick win by the BJP-led alliance came as no surprise, given the way it dominated the campaign.

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