BJP topples Manik’s sarkar

NDA storms to power in red bastion Tripura, set to form govt with new ally in Nagaland; Meghalaya hangs in the balance after split verdict

NEW DELHI: Continuing its post2014 winning spree, and reinforcing its claim of being a truly ‘national party’, the BJP swept to victory in Tripura, defeating an entrenched Left Front government, and ensured India would now have 15 chief ministers from the party. “From Kohima to Kutch, our party is in power,” BJP president Amit Shah said in a press conference on Saturday.

The party was also all set to form the government with an ally in Nagaland, and despite its low numbers, remained in the game for power in Meghalaya. Saturday’s outcome comes as a huge morale-booster for the party after a close shave in Gujarat and setbacks in Rajasthan bypolls.

Delighted at the victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Tripura election an ‘epochmaking one’, and a journey from ‘shunya’, zero, to ‘shikhar’, peak. A Tripura win, he had told BJP leaders last week, would be an ideological victory and the celebrations should be even more grand than that of UP win.

In 2013, the BJP had forfeited its deposit in 49 of the 50 seats it contested, bagging less than two percent of the vote. This time around, the BJP-led alliance swept with a two-thirds majority, winning 43 seats, ousting the long-serving Communist CM of the state, Manik Sarkar. Biplab Deb, a young BJP leader with a background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is expected to be the new CM.

The BJP’s success came on the back of anti-incumbency against CPI(M), with a range of groups unhappy with Sarkar — government employees, young students, job aspirants, tribals. The party, led by general secretary Ram Madhav and state incharge Sunil Deodhar, built a robust organisation, stitched alliances, imported leaders from other parties, occupied the opposition space vacated by Congress and snatched away even old Left loyalists.

The BJP’s strategy of switching from Nagaland’s dominant regional party, Naga People’s Front, and allying with former CM Neiphiu Rio-led new formation, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), seemed to have paid off. ,

PTI PHOTO BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and the party’s Tripura unit chief, Biplab Deb, the frontrunner for the CM’s post, greet supporters in Agartala on Saturday after winning the state election.