Kolkata, May 4 -- It was clear by Monday noon that Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee would not take oath as chief minister for the fourth time, given the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) decisive leads in 184 of Bengal's 294 seats.

The saffron wave was evident not only in the 152 seats that went to polls in the first phase but also in the 142 south Bengal seats where polls were held in the final phase on April 29. This was a clear indication that anti-incumbent sentiment, fuelled by corruption allegations, had overshadowed all strategies the TMC deployed against the BJP, especially the effort to label central leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as "anti-Bengali" and "bahiragato" (outs...