At the end of a tight race, the determined 56-year-old Mamata Banerjee emerged as the "giant killer" of the state elections in West Bengal, ending 34 years of Left Front rule on a single point agenda of doing away with Marxist "misrule."

Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress, stormed the red bastion and crushed the Communist Party of India (Marxist), one of the most successful communist parties in the world, which also lost its majority in the southern state of Kerala.

Pledges of good governance

Appearing briefly before thousands of cheering supporters, Banerjee promised to bring "good governance" to West Bengal.

"We will have the right and judicious mix of youth and experience but Mamata will naturally be the driving force behind the administration," Saugata Ray, another Trinamool Congress leader, told Deutsche Welle. "It will be a new-look government."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ruling Congress party also made crucial gains in Assam, emerging as the single largest party. It also won by a narrow margin in Kerala and in the southern state of Pondicherry, despite being embroiled in corruption scandals and facing protests over food inflation.

However, the federal coalition lost in the southern state of Tamil Nadu after its second biggest ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), became enmeshed in a telecoms graft case that is reported to have cost the government up to $39 billion.

Jayalalitha of the rival party AIADMK is now set to become the state's chief minister for a third time. However, on Friday Congress tried to play down the drubbing. "In Tamil Nadu, the party in government has always been voted out in recent times," a party spokesperson said.

"The anti-incumbency factor has worked once again. But Jayalalitha has taken her party to victory and certainly deserves our best wishes. We hope she will do a good job."

Mid-term trust vote for Congress

The polls were the first popular test of Manmohan Singh's coalition government since being beset by graft allegations and rising food prices. Former External Affairs Minister Shashi Tharoor, who is also a Congress MP, said the poor showing in Tamil Nadu should not be taken too seriously.

"Every state election is fundamentally about state and local issues," he said. "It is a little unreasonable to draw national conclusions from one state. If you do have to draw a conclusion, it should be of our success in four states."

He added that Tamil Nadu had been affected by "a headline-grabbing situation that had affected a local party and its local and national leaders" and this had "naturally had an impact on the voters."

Political observers think that the verdict from four key states could well be a mid-term trust vote for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, which has been grappling with credibility and an image problem.

Whether the government is able to turn this mandate to its advantage will be keenly watched.

Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Anne Thomas