BJP wins Tripura Assembly polls, ends 25 years of uninterrupted rule of CPI(M)

PM Narendra Modi along with senior party leaders after the state election results of three north-east states at the BJP head-quarters in New Delhi. Pic/AFP

The BJP created history by winning the Tripura Assembly polls yesterday, ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in the state. The party captured 23 seats on its own while its alliance partner, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) bagged seven seats, giving the combine a majority in the House, according to Election Commision (EC) sources.

The elections in 59 seats in the 60-member Assembly were held on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to the death of a CPI(M) candidate. The BJP is also leading in another 12 constituencies and the IPFT in one. The saffron party inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Left Front, which had never faced such a situation even when it had lost power in 1988 to the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity combine, by just one seat.

The BJP's strong showing came as a surprise for many as the party did not even have a councillor in Tripura. It had secured less than two per cent votes in the 2013 Assembly election in the state. According to an EC source, the BJP, which contested in 51 seats in Tripura, has secured over 42 per cent of the votes.

Among the winning candidates in the BJP were Biplab Deb, its state unit president. Its ally IPFT, which fielded candidates in nine seats, got nearly 8 per cent votes.

On the other hand, the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which had captured 50 of the 60 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, is expected to secure nearly 44 per cent this time, the EC source said.

The Congress is not expected win a single seat. Its vote share is likely to dip to slightly over two per cent, the EC source said. BJP party chief Amit Shah said, "What the results have clearly showed is that the Left is not right for any part of the country. This is a win of the PM's policies. People have put their stamp of approval on his politics of development."