The assembly elections of 2026 may eventually be remembered less for individual victories than for the collapse of political certainties that had governed West Bengal and Tamil Nadu for decades. Two states long regarded as structurally predictable have suddenly become politically fluid again. Tamil Nadu’s transition is historic because it formally ends the post-1967 DMK-AIADMK monopoly over power. But the larger significance lies not in celebrity politics alone. It lies in the visible erosion of inherited political loyalty. For decades, Tamil Nadu functioned through controlled alternation.

Voters could punish one Dravidian party by electing the other, yet the larger framework survived untouched. National parties adapted themselves to this arrangement rather than attempting to dismantle it. That system has now been breached. The reasons extend beyond anti-incumbency. The DMK increasingly came to symbolise dynastic continuity, while the AIADMK struggled to redefine itself after Jayalalithaa’s death. Younger voters appear less emotionally invested in the political identities that shaped earlier generations. The result is not the disappearance of Dravidian politics, but the weakening of its closed structure. West Bengal’s verdict represents an equally consequential rupture, though of a different kind. Bengal........

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