Listen to this article:

The moment being experienced in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu immediately brings to mind the last time such a seismic shift occurred on the landscape of these two electoral states. Just three years after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1967, nearly six decades ago, the politics of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu changed beyond recognition.

In Tamil Nadu, the venerable Congress leader, once president of the Congress and ex-chief minister, K. Kamraj lost to a student leader in February 1967. It became only the second instance of a non-Congress party storming to power in a state. The first was when the Communist Party of India had won Kerala in 1957.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, led by C.N. Annadurai, riding at the back of high prices and unrest springing therefrom and the anger at Hindi imposition from the Centre burst on the scene. Subsequent developments, led to the DMK splitting into the AIADMK, with M.G. Ramachandran emerging from within the party and between the two Dravida parties, providing a formidable binary that went on to keep the Congress party out of power all the way until 2026, and also ensure the development of a very competitive and hardy ‘Dravidian model’ that with distinct differentiators from the rest of India, tried to wed social justice with economic progress, with considerable success for sixty years.

C. Joseph Vijay, cine-star and leader of the Tamil Vetri Kazhagam has now broken the strict binary and prised Tamil Nadu open, beyond what the Dravidian parties and their coalitions had deemed and dreamed for the state. For the first time after 1967, there is a political opening for a party, which is neither DMK........

© The Wire