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Mamata Banerjee wins crushing victory over communists in West Bengal, while Jayalalithaa triumphs in Tamil Nadu Mamata Banerjee spent Friday morning listening to classical music while finishing an oil painting. By the evening she was in charge of state with a population of 90 million, after winning a crushing victory over the Indian Communist party and putting an end to three decades of leftwing rule in West Bengal. Her victory came as results from a string of state elections across India consolidated female politicians in some of the country’s most prominent positions. In the vast southern state of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa, a former movie star who goes by one name, swept aside the incumbent government in an acrimonious fight fuelled by corruption allegations. Ramachandra Guha, a political historian and analyst, said the results were unprecedented. “You don’t want to go too far as huge problems of gender inequality, foeticide, oppression and discrimination against women remain in India but it is still exceptional to have so many very powerful women at one time,” Guha said. Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress party, remains the most influential single politician in the country. Other prominent female politicians include Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of the capital, Delhi, and Mayawati, who runs the vast state of Uttar Pradesh. The president of India, a largely ceremonial position, is also a woman, Pratibha Patil. The victory of Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress had been widely predicted. The Communist party in West Bengal has seen its once powerful support base weakened by corruption, poor administration, a series of land protests and a failure to bring any serious economic growth. Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook news magazine, said the party had lost power because of “more than three decades of misgovernment and dogma”. Banerjee said hers was a victory “of hapless people who have faced exploitation, violence and discrimination”. But some analysts have reservations about her ability to deal with the problems facing West Bengal, where poverty in many areas is equal to that in sub-Saharan Africa. Elsewhere in India, about 142 million people’s votes were counted in four states and one city, Puducherry. More than 800 counting stations were set up, protected by nearly 20,000 security personnel. In the southern coastal state of Kerala, communists also lost – though by a slim margin – to the Congress party, who lead a governing coalition at national level. But in Tamil Nadu, the governing party’s local allies were ousted in what is seen as a win for anti-corruption campaigners. The DMK party was deeply implicated in the biggest graft scandal to hit India for decades: the allegedly fraudulent sale of telecoms licences which has been calculated to have cost the nation £25bn . Jayalalithaa won despite allegations that her opponents handed out free televisions, laptops, saris and other gifts including cash in return for support, and her victory was seen as a reflection of growing outrage over political graft. “It’s a hugely important development. It shows that concern about corruption is not just confined to the urban educated elite as many of the politicians have been saying,” said Mehta, of Outlook. “It’s very good news for democracy in India.” But it is Banerjee, a law and history graduate from a lower-middle-class family who wears a traditional sari with bathroom slippers and lives with her mother, who is the main focus of attention. In a country where politics is increasingly dominated by dynasties, she is an outsider. Banerjee, whose austere lifestyle is in stark contrast with that of some of India’s senior politicians, said on Friday that gender was not an issue. “It is not me, it is the people of Bengal. That I am a woman is not the issue. Without my sisters I cannot do my job but not without my brothers too,” she told the NDTV television channel. India Women Gender Jason Burke guardian.co.uk