The last 100 days have been mind-boggling to say the least when it comes to Indian politics. Three major, seemingly unrelated, events took shape and have forever changed the political calculations of the country.From the Tamil Nadu and West Bengal assembly election results to the emergence of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement and Prashant Kishor’s bye-election victory in Bihar, the country’s political landscape is undergoing a major transformation.Assembly election resultsThe assembly election results in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal on May 4, 2026, had far-reaching consequences that extended well beyond the two states.In Tamil Nadu, film star Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) made a strong debut. Contesting independently in all 234 seats, the party became the single largest party and subsequently secured the numbers required to form the government. In doing so, the Congress, which had contested the election as part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) alliance, moved away from the DMK group.This immediately resulted in a major dent to the opposition INDIA bloc at the centre. The DMK has 22 Lok Sabha MPs and eight Rajya Sabha MPs – all of them now effectively out of the INDIA bloc. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s resounding success in West Bengal, where it won 207 out of 294 seats, ousted Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) after a 15-year-long stint. More than the defeat, the aftermath shocked the country. Twenty of TMC’s 27 Lok Sabha MPs broke away to merge with a little-known outfit, Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI) from Tripura.West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari during a victory rally after the West Bengal assembly election results, in Kolkata, May 13, 2026. Photo: PTI/Swapan Mahapatra.Whatever may be the reasons for the loss of DMK and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in their respective states, their unseating has undoubtedly weakened the INDIA bloc at the centre and strengthened the position of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in parliament. The 20 breakaway TMC MPs have been openly kowtowing with the NDA, even attending their strategy sessions. DMK MPs, meanwhile, have requested separate seating arrangements, signalling their divorce from the INDIA alliance. Time will tell where they stand on important legislative decisions. Thus, these two assembly election results have proven once again that local elections have national ramifications well beyond their perimetres. In the last 12 years since Narendra Modi ascended the Delhi throne, DMK has arguably been his ideological nemesis on various issues ranging from the National Education Policy (NEP), initiatives such as the One Nation One Election, federalism and, most importantly, the politics surrounding Sanatana Dharma.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay hoists the national flag during the 80th Independence Day celebrations at Fort St. George, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. Photo: PTI.Similarly, TMC leaders in parliament have particularly been the most bitter critics of the Modi regime and Banerjee had acted as a bulwark against the BJP’s spread in West Bengal thus far.The latest developments have therefore changed the political equation. After the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the INDIA alliance stood at a respectable 234 seats. With two of its major foundational pillars now weakened or moving away from the alliance and with parties such as the NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) also showing signs of political uncertainty, the opposition’s position has now become a mere shadow of its former self. It is worth noting here that both the DMK and the TMC were, once upon a time, NDA partners that shared power at the centre with BJP between 1999 and 2004, the years that saw the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. The next three years of this current parliamentary term could potentially be less challenging for the NDA than the first two, if the present realignments persist.Cockroach Janta Party movementStemming from a seemingly innocuous viral social media post by Abhijeet Dipke on May 16, 2026, the CJP has grown by leaps and bounds in the last three months. The agitation spearheaded by CJP at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, began on June 6 and quickly captured the imagination of a significant portion of the country’s youth, dubbed as “Gen Z”. With the valiant and self-sacrificial support of activists such as Sonam Wangchuk, CJP quickly became a household name in the country. Perhaps cleverly, they stuck to a definable, achievable demand: the resignation of the then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the light of exam paper leaks, including the ultra-competitive and prestigious NEET examination.They very well achieved their goal on July 25 with the minister stepping down. However, time will tell if there will be any meaningful reform in the country’s defunct education sector, which has been one of the main causes behind India’s soaring unemployment crisis and inability to meaningfully challenge China’s supremacy in the global arena.Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke (centre) address volunteers in the presence of other members Ratna Singh, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in Delhi on August 13, 2026. Photo: X/@abhijeet_dipke.Many analysts have noted CJP’s rise as “a warning bell” or “a death knell” to the BJP’s rule in the country. However, it is just as much a threat to opposition parties as it is to the BJP. Prior to the advent of CJP, Rahul Gandhi had been galvanising opposition in the country through various means such as the Bharat Jodo Yatra, exposure of “Vote Chori” trends, standing by the victims of the Manipur pogrom and the 2020-2021 farmers’ protest. With CJP’s entry into the mix, especially considering today’s short attention spans, the opposition space has been taken over. CJP will certainly enter the electoral field, even though its leadership describes themselves as merely a pressure group. At that point, the impact is going to be experienced in states where the Congress is in direct battle with the BJP. CJP’s role in states with strong regional forces is bound to be minimal. In such a scenario, Congress and Gandhi will have as much to lose as purportedly the BJP does. It is quite possible that the hardline rightwing voter will still cling to the BJP. In any case, CJP is sure to spice up the political battles of the coming years.Prashant Kishor’s bye-election winOn August 3, 2026, Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder and election strategist Prashant Kishor won the Bankipur assembly bye-election in Bihar. At 49.23% vote share, his victory was definitive, with the BJP a distant second at 34% and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) relegated to an ignominious third with a mere 10%. Some observers have seen this development as the dawn of a new era of politics in Bihar. If true, this will prove to be a massive generational shift. Bihar has been the breeding ground for assertive politics for almost 50 years, launching several national leaders belonging to marginalised communities. With Lalu Prasad Yadav taking up the mantle of the state’s chief minister in 1990, it has become an unwritten rule that the state can only be ruled by a representative of an oppressed community – be it Lalu-Rabri Yadav’s 15-year-long rule, Nitish Kumar’s 21-year-long tenure or Jitan Ram Manjhi’s brief reign.Jan Suraaj Party chief Prashant Kishor celebrates with supporters after taking the lead in the Bankipur Assembly by-election during the counting of votes, in Patna, Bihar, August 3, 2026, Photo: X/@jansuraajonline.Even the BJP, which held “Kamandal” politics as diametrically opposite to “Mandal” politics, did not dare pick a candidate from a non-Other Backward Classes community after coming to power. Kishor has now tasted electoral success in the name of “good governance” (suraaj). It remains to be seen if he has the potential to sideline assertive politics once and for all or if his bye-election win is only a blip on the vastly “Mandalised” Bihar landscape. Again, even though his victory is being seen as a defeat for the BJP, only time will tell what impact the JSP would have on the opposition’s vote share. While the BJP lost nearly 29% vote share compared with the 2024 assembly election in Bankipur, the RJD also lost roughly 20% of its share. In essence, these three varied major political events of the last 100 days have spiced up the political atmosphere in the country and are foretelling the unpredictable nature of the elections to come, including the grand finale of 2029. G. Naveen has been writing articles pertaining to politics, with an emphasis on social justice, for more than 20 years on various platforms. He is a physician by profession.