One of the staff at my hotel told me last night that the Keralan election was won by a coalition of four left-wing parties. This ends the reign of another four-party coalition and so that coalition’s Chief Minister is about to resign. I wasn’t able to find out anything about the interregnum which was implied. However, each state apparently has a govenor, presumably appointed by central government for such reasons.

If I had been brought up in India and gone to school, I would probably know a lot more about India’s constitution. I’ve been told that it was written by Dr B Ambedkar. This explains the the many statues of him and things named after him. A quick read of the wikipedia article about him convinces me he’s well worth knowing more about.

Just in case you’re interested:

• election results
• official(?) election site
• few women elected
• elections in other states:
• Dr Ambedkar

Until yesterday, I would have described Ottapalam as a one-hourse town. On my way from the post-office, I saw it wasn’t a horse, but a donkey. The donkey had terrible welts on its shoulders and side.