India, May 5 -- Two heavyweight INDIA bloc constituents-Trinamool Congress and the DMK-failed to protect their turf, shrinking the Opposition's footprint further following the latest round of assembly polls. Mamata Banerjee's TMC was humbled by the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal and the DMK tasted defeat in Tamil Nadu. In contrast, BJP expanded further in eastern India: the party secured a historic victory in West Bengal and retained power in Assam.

The Left parties, another constituent of the beleaguered INDIA group, do not have any state government for the first time since 1977 after losing Kerala to the Congress. There are several implications of these results, including, but not limited to the NDA's upper hand in next year's P...