Actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth on Tuesday said the results of the Assembly elections in key states showed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was “losing its influence”, PTI reported. Referring to the party’s defeat in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and a close contest with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Rajinikanth said the results were “certainly a big setback for the BJP”. The BJP was in power in these three states.

Assembly elections for the three states, as well as for Telangana and Mizoram, were held between November 12 and December 7 and the votes were counted on Tuesday. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi won the elections in Telangana to retain power, while the Mizo National Front returned to power after 10 years. The results in the five states come months before the Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP hopes to retain power at the Centre.

Kamal Haasan, another actor-turned-politician, called the election results “the first sign of a new beginning”. “This is the people’s verdict,” he said on Twitter.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post that the election results showed that people won’t forgive political leaders for ignoring their problems and misusing the government to differentiate based on communal lines. He said the results were proof that people were losing trust in the BJP, and had realised there is no truth in the party’s promise of development. Ignoring poverty, unemployment and inflation and diverting attention to irrelevant issues will not work, he said.

In Tamil Nadu, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said the mood of the people for the Lok Sabha elections cannot be judged based on Tuesday’s outcome, PTI reported. “The situation keeps changing,” said party leader and minister D Jayakumar. “These are state Assembly polls. Nobody can predict the mood of the people for Parliamentary polls... the heart of the people is like a deep mine.”

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief MK Stalin said the polls in the five states were a “mini-parliamentary election” before the Lok Sabha elections next year, reported ANI. He said the results would “reinforce our fight against the fascist BJP regime and help in strengthening the grand alliance”.

Party leader Kanimozhi tweeted that “the much promised achche din [good days] had arrived”. “Today is a good day,” she said.