The Loser: Out in the cold
He has been the most active and people-friendly chief minister Kerala has seen in recent times. So Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was not worried about pre and exit polls surveys that predicted his government's defeat.
On Thursday, as the results trickled in, Chandy was glued to the television tracking his government’s downfall. Mercifully, he won from Puthupally, for the ninth time.
"I am confident of coming back. Because my government has carried out spectacular development work in Kerala," Chandy told rediff.com during the campaign last month.
Why did his government lose?
"It is the anti-incumbency factor; the defeat has nothing to do with my performance," was Chandy's first reaction.
"I will explain why we lost first to the Congress high command," he said as supporters gathered at his home and Chandy got ready to submit his resignation to the governor.
Surely, Chandy has other compelling coalition reasons to explain to the high command. First, he was opposed to the idea of tying up with K Karunakaran’s Democratic Indira Congress.
"I think we lost out because we gave 18 seats to DIC. And they lost in 17," explained Congress leader Benny Behnan.
"The Congress is losing its roots. It is not a cohesive party in Kerala, even under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. That is the tragedy of the Congress here," says political analysist K Gopakumar.
More than any other reason, there is another reason why Chandy and his men lost -- the anti-incumbency factor.
No other electorate worships the anti-incumbency factor as religiously as Kerala. Chandy lost because people change governments every election here.
Also See: Kerala: Simply politics and nothing else