India’s landmark assembly elections

The recently concluded assembly elections in India would undoubtedly go down as one of the watershed moments in the electoral annals of the world’s largest democracy. With the outcomes of the latest assembly elections in the Asian giant, no state in India will be controlled by a left-leaning Government after almost 50 years, as the power of the State Government of Kerala – the only Indian state which had a Communist administration – was captured by the Congress-led United Democratic Front alliance, defeating the Left Democratic Front - an alliance of left-wing political parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – which ruled the southern state since 2016.

Another breakthrough outcome was the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s victory in West Bengal, dismantling the 15-year-old rule of the Trinamool Congress, led by combative, pugnacious outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It is the first time that the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a politically influential state in eastern India.

The victory in West Bengal, furthers the Hindu nationalist party’s growing control over state and central governments across the most populous country in the globe, providing impetus to its long-held ambition of establishing political dominance in the entirety of the emerging world power. Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, the BJP’s dominance over politics and the reach of its political agenda has continued to grow. With the conclusion of the latest round of assembly elections (the BJP was also re-elected in the state of Assam), the right-leaning political party holds power in 20 out of 28 states.

The state election which had the greatest implication to Sri Lanka was the battle in Tamil Nadu. The contest in the southern state this time around had a lot of thrill and excitement due to the entry of superstar Kollywood actor Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party (TVK). The victory of the celebrity film actor has fundamentally altered the political landscape of Tamil Nadu, as the political power of the state has been swapping between the DMK, which is led by the outgoing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, and the AIADMK, which has gone into decline since the death of J. Jayalalithaa.

Film stars dominating the regional politics of Tamil Nadu is nothing new. Former Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandran, Janaki Ramachandran, and J. Jayalalithaa were all Kollywood stars. Even Chief Ministers like C. N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi were script writers associated with Tamil cinema.

Interestingly, Vijay (aka Thalapathy) has close links with India’s neighbour across the Palk Straits. His grandfather was born in Sri Lanka though the deceased individual migrated to Tamil Nadu later. The incoming Chief Minister’s estranged wife Sangeetha Sornalingam is a Sri Lankan by birth.

Nevertheless, Vijay has passionately indulged in publicity stunts to express anti-Sri Lankan stances to cement his political legacy despite familial connections to the island. In 2011, he proclaimed that the South Asian state would be wiped off from the world map in the event the Sri Lankan Navy attacked any more fishermen from his state after the alleged killing of a fisherman from Tamil Nadu, who had trespassed into the Sri Lankan waters. While the offensive against the LTTE was going on, Thalapathy took part in a one-day hunger strike to demonstrate his opposition towards the Government of Sri Lanka.

Now, as he stands on the threshold of executive power, theatrics become largely irrelevant. Governance demands discipline and responsibility - qualities that cannot be performed for applause. Running a state as complex and economically critical as Tamil Nadu is vastly different from running around trees with actresses in film shootings.

If Vijay fails to transition from populism to pragmatic leadership, his tenure risks becoming yet another failed episode of celebrity politics. The sooner he recognises this, the better it will be - not just for him, but for Tamil Nadu and its ties with Sri Lanka.