May 16, 2026
- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry went to the polls last month.
- In West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled for 15 years.
- In Tamil Nadu, actor-politician Vijay made a powerful debut as his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) ended the six-decade-long reign of Tamil Nadu’s two most powerful political parties, DMK and AIADMK.
- In Kerala, the Indian National Congress (INC)-led United Democratic Front (UDF) made a comeback after 10 years.
- In Assam, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won for a third straight term while in Puducherry, the ruling chief minister N Rangaswamy returned for a record fifth time.
