AGARTALA/KOHIMA/SHILLONG: Riding the crest of a Modi wave, the BJP on March 3, demolished the communist citadel of Tripura, winning a two-third majority with ally IPFT and ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front.
The saffron party, which did not have even a single councilor in all of Tripura, had secured less than two per cent votes in the 2013 polls.
In Nagaland, though the BJP-NDPP alliance failed to secure a majority with the state throwing up a hung Assembly, the party’s participation in the future government looks certain.
The ruling NPF, which emerged as the single largest party, extended invitation to the BJP join the new dispensation, though the BJP-NDPP combine may be able to form a government with help from smaller parties like NPP, JD(U) and an independent.
Meghalaya too gave a fractured verdict with the ruling Congress as the single largest party with 21 seats, nine short of a simple majority.
All three states have 60-member assemblies but polling was held for 59 seats each due to various reasons.
“It is a journey from no one to number won, from ‘shoonya to shikhar’ (zero to top),” a jubilant Prime Minister Narendra Modi said addressing BJP workers at the newly constructed party headquarters in the national capital referring to the giant leap of the party in the Northeast.
The BJP is already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
About the resounding victory in Tripura, Prime Minister Modi said, “It is a win for democracy over brute force and intimidation. Today peace and non-violence have prevailed over fear. We will provide Tripura the good government that the state deserves.”
Though the ruling Congress emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya, it failed to secure a majority, winning 21 seats. The party could not open its account in Tripura and Nagaland.
The BJP could win just two seats in Christian-dominated Meghalaya, but its North-East Democratic alliance partner National People’s Party clinched 19. Together they equal the Congress’s tally.
Smaller parties that won 13 seats and three independents would play a decisive role in government formation.
Nagaland also gave a fractured verdict with no party or pre-poll alliance having a majority. The BJP got an informal invitation from NPF leader and Chief Minister T R Zeliang to join the new government. The NPF, is the single largest party in the House with 27 seats.
Meghalaya,lived up to its name with the ruling Congress finishing as the single largest party but 10 short of the half way mark of 31. Its rival, National People’s Party (NPP) has finished a close second with 19 seats. BJP, which has hinted a post-poll alliance with NPP, won just two seats.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
