The myths and facts of Assembly elections

Were the election results a victory for national parties or the regional ones?

Many explanations and many more implications of this Sunday’s results of the Assembly elections in five states are doing the rounds. Each of the outcomes in these states had a unique element, making it politically significant for both national politics and the future of regional parties in India.
 
It would be instructive to summarise the key trends emerging from these results. The reigning Left Democratic Front has retained power in Kerala, winning a second consecutive term for the first time in an election that has also resulted in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) losing its only seat in the