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1. A saffron sunrise in the East of India is on the horizon. An eastern corridor awaits the BJP. If it succeeds in installing a chief minister in West Bengal for the first time ever, it is capping its political control over the east of India. It has a chief minister in Bihar for the first time, and gained control over Odisha in 2024, another first. It anyway controls Assam again, as it does the rest of the Northeast – even if its new chief minister in Manipur rules over a very out-of-control state.

2. The South was considered a big sunrise story for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the BJP has been squeezed in both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has flipped, as it has done every five years (except 2021), but the BJP has not got anywhere. Tamil Nadu too, with BJP having forced itself down the beleaguered AIADMK, has come up with nothing – if anything, it is coming in a distant third. Only Puducherry seems poised to return N. Rangaswamy: NDA yes, BJP, no.

3. The Left is not in power in any state in India for the first time since 1977. The traditional third alternative in Indian politics,........

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