A triumphant BJP will on Sunday hold large scale celebrations across the country following its stunning performance in the northeast elections where it set to form government in two of the three states that went to polls.
In the past, the BJP also celebrated ‘Vijay Diwas’ after the landslide win in Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections.
The saffron surge in the northeast on Saturday decimated the Left in Tripura – one of its last two citadels – with the BJP ousting the CPI-M from power after 25 long years and looking to form a coalition government in Nagaland while eyeing power in Meghalaya with the help from anti-Congress parties.
The BJP Parliamentary Board met in the evening and expressed confidence that the party would form governments in Nagaland and Meghalaya also, claiming it has got absolute majority with allies in the two states that have thrown up fractured verdicts.
Riding on Saturday’s electoral victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah told BJP workers that their goal now should be to capture power in Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal and Odisha.
Pulling of a historic victory, the BJP and its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal-dominated party, together won 43 out of 59 Tripura constituencies.
The BJP on its own won 35 seats, four more than the half-way mark, while its ally IPFT won eight seats. In a remarkable performance, the alliance swept all the 20 seats reserved for tribals.
In Nagaland, the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) won 27 of the 60 assembly seats while the BJP got 11.
Interestingly, the BJP has two ministers in the NPF government but had stitched a pre-poll alliance with the National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) that won 16 seats.
The NPF headed by Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang has already passed a resolution, expressing its desire to continue its alliance with the BJP. BJP leaders have also given enough indications of going with the NPF, possibly dumping ally NDPP.
Meghalaya voters returned a hung Assembly, with the ruling Congress emerging as the single largest party with 21 seats in the 60-member house, 10 shorts of the 31 seats needed to retain power.
(With inputs from agencies)
