BJP bags Tripura, also ahead in Nagaland
04 March, 2018
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata 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.
BJP and its allies are also ahead in the mountainous state of Nagaland, while opposition Congress-ruled Meghalaya is heading for a fractured verdict.
The BJP alliance is ahead in 43 seats, while the Left front leads in 16 seats in Tripura. In Meghalaya, the Congress has captured 21 seats while the National People’s Party (NPP) has captured 19 seats. The BJP has managed only 2 seats in this state.
In Nagaland, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and BJP alliance have captured 29 seats each.
By and large, Meghalaya and Nagaland have constituted hung assemblies.
But Tripura has obtained a path-breaking achievement by pronouncing a clear verdict.
However, Tripura would go for bypolls in one constituency on March 12 owing to the death of sitting CPI-(M) legislator Ramendra Narayan Debbarma on February.
Chief ministers of all of the three states – Manik Sarkar, TR Zeliang and Mukul Sangma – have won in their constituencies respectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent his congratulatory message for the people of Northeast India.
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.