BJP emerges stronger after polls in northeast

Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrate in front of a cut-out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after learning of the initial poll results of Tripura state assembly elections, in Agartala, India March 3, 2018. REUTERS

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Saturday consolidated its position in the country’s northeast after a landslide election victory in Tripura, ending 25 years of communist rule in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP and its allies are also ahead in the Christian-dominated Nagaland, while opposition Congress-ruled Meghalaya is heading for a fractured verdict.

Elections were held only in the states of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya, where about nine million Indians live, according to the 2011 census. The three states have about 5.6 million voters, according to the election commission’s website.

With Saturday’s victory, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will gain control over five of the seven northeastern states reshaping the political landscape of the region bordering Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Modi, who had extensively campaigned in the three states, attributed the win to the development work by his party and its allies.

“Time and again, election after election, the people of India are reposing their faith in the positive and development oriented agenda of the NDA,” Modi tweeted.

The NDA already controls Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Congress-ruled Mizoram will vote later this year. Congress leader Kamal Nath told reporters that his party is hopeful of forming the government in Meghalaya with support from other parties.

With control of Tripura and Nagaland, the right-wing BJP and its allies rule 21 of India’s 29 states, boosting its prospects for a win in the national elections scheduled for 2019.

India’s main opposition Congress party, which has ruled the country for most of the time since independence in 1947, is now reduced to ruling three states.

Karnataka, one of the bigger states ruled by the Congress, goes to the polls later this year.

“Victory after victory is a positive sign. This has boosted our confidence even more for 2019,” BJP president Amit Shah said.

Modi hails his party’s journey from zero to peak after massive win in northeastern state

Reuters:  The victory of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tripura is a journey from zero to peak, said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating his party workers in New Delhi on Saturday (March 03), on its thumping victory bagging 43 out of 59 seats in India’s northeastern state of Tripura where it did not have a single seat ever.

The BJP and its ally parties won majority in the states of Tripura and Nagaland, while India’s main opposition, the Congress party led Meghalaya with 21 seats out of 59.

Praising party president Amit Shah at the newly inaugurated party headquarters in New Delhi, Modi said that the central government has made north-east its focus and has taken up the baton of accelerating its growth process. He also said that he will return the love, the states have showered upon the party with interest, and the interest in this case would come in the form of development.