JAGAN MOHAN REDDY
Much like the famed Kadapa limestone, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s evolution has been a function of pressure and time. He spent nearly a decade in the opposition, struggling to match up to the legacy of his illustrious father, the former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Sensing that this would be a make-or-break election, Jagan began preparing a year ago. He crisscrossed Andhra Pradesh on foot for 14 months, connecting with voters and covering more than 3,700km. The result: A walk in the park for the YSR Congress, which won 150 of 175 assembly seats and 22 of 25 Lok Sabha constituencies.
M.K. STALIN
When DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi died last year, people said the rising sun in the party’s poll symbol had finally set. They were wrong. Stalin’s star is on the rise with the resurgence of the DMK as the Congress’s strongest ally. The party, which had drawn a blank in 2014, won 23 seats and helped its allies win 14 more. With the AIADMK a shambles, Stalin appears to be a shoo-in for chief minister in 2021.
NITISH KUMAR
In 2013, when the BJP declared Narendra Modi as its prime minister candidate, Nitish Kumar quoted Vyasa to predict doom for the saffron party. “Vinaash kale viprit buddhi (When you move towards self-destruction, even your intellect deserts you),” he said. His critics echoed the line when Kumar rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 2017, but it turns out that they grossly underestimated his acumen. Even as he guarded his secular credentials by reining in saffron hardliners in Bihar, Kumar pressured the BJP into allotting him 17 seats. He won all but two of the seats, reclaiming his reputation as Bihar’s reigning Chanakya.
SMRITI IRANI
Her tryst with Amethi is the stuff of Bollywood love triangles. The constituency, which had long been in love with the Gandhi family, had broken her heart in 2014. Never one to lose hope, though, she went with all her heart this time—perhaps sensing Amethi’s tiff with Rahul Gandhi, who had gone in search of greener pastures. Irani’s foxy and fetching campaign finally convinced voters what she had long been saying—that she is a keeper.
MAYAWATI AND AKHILESH YADAV
The much-hyped grand coalition in Uttar Pradesh turned out to be anything but grand. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, Akhilesh’s Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal were expected to bag most of the 80 seats by consolidating dalit, backward, Muslim and Jat votes. But the caste arithmetic did not add up, pouring cold water on Mayawati’s prime ministerial ambitions. There is consolation, though. Together, the three parties won 10 more seats than in 2014, when the SP had won just five and both the BSP and the RLD had drawn a blank.
PINARAYI VIJAYAN
The Kerala chief minister ensured that women entered the Sabarimala temple; voters ensured that the Left Democratic Front was banished from even its bastions. In its worst defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the LDF lost 19 of 20 seats to the Congress-led United Democratic Front. Vijayan’s one prediction came true, though. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance drew a blank; worse, it was relegated to the third position in all but one seat. But, that would hardly make the famously gruff Vijayan smile.
N. CHANDRABABU NAIDU
For someone who openly discredited pre- and post-poll surveys predicting a BJP wave, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister reposed too much faith in an internal survey that projected a thumping victory for his Telugu Desam Party in the assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Armed with that survey, he jetted in and out of Delhi and state capitals to stitch up a grand opposition coalition, while completely failing to sense the tectonic shifts on the ground. The crash was ugly: the TDP is down to three seats in the Lok Sabha (from 16 last time) and 24 seats in the assembly (from 79).
TEJASHWI YADAV
As a cricketer, Tejashwi Yadav was a flop. He was once bought by an Indian Premier League team for a hefty sum, but spent most of the season delivering water bottles to the playing eleven. He had shown much more panache as a politician, performing yeoman service to the cause of opposition unity with his tactful moves and fiery speeches. But, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal winning none of the 20 seats contested, the former all-rounder will not be playing in the national side anytime soon.