High voter turnout. Big political signal — or a broken myth? Assam, Puducherry and Kerala saw massive participation in the April 9 Assembly polls, with the first two clocking record numbers and Kerala touching its second-highest ever. For years, conventional wisdom has claimed that high turnout spells trouble for those in power. But that script may no longer hold. In Kerala, the numbers are telling a different story. In TOI’s Mood Of The States, C-Voter’s Yashwant Deshmukh explains why this surge could actually benefit the incumbent. His key argument — women voters turned out in larger numbers, and that shift could quietly reshape the outcome in favour of Pinarayi Vijayan.