WEST BENGALWhat can make grown men block roads with burning tyres? Candidate lists, of course. It was just past the Ides of March when the BJP put out 111 names in its second list for Bengal. And Triple Nelson struck! Its Salt Lake HQ had to hoster, an unplanned open house for cadre from Beliaghata, Entally, Gosaba and elsewhere. They weren’t in a mishti mood. Too many names had been parachuted in—not “our people”, not “local faces”, all “imported items” smuggled in tariff-free. In Malda, tyres were burnt—Bangla politesse for “I beg to differ”. The party leadership tried to look composed, as if they had expected chairs to be thrown around.The Trinamool, of course, has a post-doc in that language. But a schoolmarmish code has reined in the scholarship for now, even if 74 sitting MLAs have been dropped like overripe jackfruit. Only in Canning East did traditional Bengali find expression briefly, with blocked roads. In North 24 Parganas, the Matuas felt done in by both parties. Nandigram was more symmetrical: the TMC has fielded a BJP discard against Suvendu Adhikari, and the saffron camp has replied in kind. An exchange programme! A truce so brilliant that it could be held up as a model across India.ASSAM | PRADYUT BORDOLOIFraught with Frenemy fire Assam is offering quite the masterclass in selective amnesia. Pradyut Bordoloi, two-term Nagaon MP, quit the Congress on March 17, joined the BJP in a day, and was promptly fielded from Dispur. Par for the course? Yes, except that in August 2025, the BJP had called him “one of the most corrupt, manipulative powerbrokers”. Bordoloi himself, a month earlier, had chaired a Congress session that produced a chargesheet accusing CM Himanta Biswa Sarma of “institutionalised corruption”. Opposition conscience-keeper Akhil Gogoi, similarly, had once flung allegations of a Rs 18-crore US property scandal against Sarma’s long-time former boss, the ex-Congress CM Tarun Gogoi. But on March 20, he endorsed the late Gogoi’s son, Gaurav Gogoi, as a future CM—after calling the GOP “arrogant” during tense alliance talks that almost broke down. Well, as long as they don’t all forget who their enemy is while campaigning for the April 9 poll!ASSAM | JAYANTA KUMAR DASCountry Pistols Jayanta Kumar Das didn’t get the BJP’s approval for a ticket from Assam’s Dispur, so he has turned approver. In an explosive allegation, he says hired young guns are operating 10,000 fake social media accounts out of Room 501 at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan, the party HQ at Guwahati. That reminded everyone of a February post, on the official BJP handle, of an AI-generated video of CM Himanta Biswa Sarma aiming a gun at a Muslim-looking man standing beside Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi. The caption read: ‘Point Blank’. It’s now a case in the Gauhati High Court, and the uploader has been offloaded by the party. Yet, in an interview with india today, the CM defended the post, even saying he would repost it from his own handle, with the “correct” caption: “Bangladeshi”.KERALA | JOSEPH VAZHACKANGood for the GDP? Joseph Vazhackan had printed a hundred thousand posters and cutouts starring himself, spending a neat Rs 25 lakh on this burst of vanity publishing. Who could blame him? Everyone in the Congress had assured him, the state vice-prez, that he was a sure shot for the Ettumanoor seat. Yes, right up to those who speak in a Malayali accent in the high command. But when the list came out, the seat had gone to a Kottayam district satrap. New Delhi’s veto! His only consolation: Deepthi Mary Varghese from Ernakulam, too, had contributed in vain to India’s GDP—by printing her own posters for Kochi. LoP V.D. Satheeshan’s veto, this time.But the most telling stat? The would-be CM apparently got his way only in nine seats. Dominating the battlescape was a distant field marshal, AICC gen-sec K.C. Venugopal, who kept 34 seats for his retinue. Even ex-LoP Ramesh Chennithala bagged 22 seats. So even if the Congress wins the April 9 assembly poll, it would seem KC has written Satheeshan’s fate for the five years.TAMIL NADU | V.K. SASIKALA AND S. RAMADOSS Revenge Rerun Photo: ANI These are not eggs you would have put in the same basket. But isolation can guide you imperceptibly to fellow loners. V.K. Sasikala and S. Ramadoss prove that with an unlikely alliance that has sprung up on the margins of political history. Both were once once central to Dravidian power structures: Sasikala operated at the core of the imperium as the confidante of late AIADMK regina J. Jayalalithaa, till her demise. Ramadoss’s writ ran up to New Delhi, but the Pattali Makkal Katchi founder finds himself disinherited by his own son. Anbumani Ramadoss has since steered the party towards the AIADMK-BJP combine. As a salve for this shared experience of loss of glory, the duo are hoping to gather up shards of their old Thevar and Vanniyar vote. So what if it’s only fragments? Sometimes, revenge is sweeter than victory.By Jeemon Jacob, Arkamoy Datta Maumdar and Kavitha Muralidharan- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Mar 27, 2026 20:18 IST
