Assembly election 2018: BJP drubs Left in Tripura, gets invite to join govt in Nagaland

Continuing its winning streak, the BJP on Saturday wrested Tripura, the last Left bastion, and received an invitation to be part of the government in Nagaland, while Meghalaya elected a hung Assembly.

The BJP, which was hitherto a marginal player in Tripura politics, having failed to clinch even a single seat in the state in the last polls, has already won a majority on its own, pocketing 32 seats in the 60-member Assembly. It was leading in three more seats.

Elections were held in 59 seats in all three states due to different reasons despite them having 60-member assemblies.

BJP ally, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), won seven seats and was leading in one.

The CPI(M), which ruled Tripura for 25 years running, won 11 seats and its candidates were leading in five more.

“It is a journey from no one to number one, from ‘Shoonya to Shikhar’ (zero to pinnacle),” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said addressing BJP workers at the newly built party headquarters in the national capital.

He described BJP chief Amit Shah as the “sculptor” of the party’s victory march.

Also Read | When the sun sets, it's red but saffron when rises, says PM Modi on Tripura Assembly 

Nagaland headed for a hung Assembly with no party or pre-poll alliance having a majority. However, the BJP received invitation from NPF leader and Chief Minister T R Zeliang to join the new government. The NPF looks all set to emerge as the single largest party having won 24 seats and leading in three.

The BJP had parted ways with the NPF just ahead of the polls and joined hands with the newly launched NDPP of Neiphiu Rio.

The BJP won nine seats and was leading in two. Its ally NDPP won 11 seats and was leading in four.

Results and trends were available for 57 seats only.

Zeliang said NPF continued to be a part of the North-East Democratic alliance led by the BJP and hoped the saffron party will form the new government with it.

“We have not parted with the alliance. I hope BJP will join our government. I will welcome it if they join us,” he told NDTV.

The Congress, which was in power in Meghalaya since May 2009, failed to win a majority but emerged the single largest party with 21 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar has won one seat.

While the BJP could manage just two seats in Meghalaya, its North-East Democratic alliance partner National People’s Party won 19.

Smaller parties that have won 13 seats and three independents would play a decisive role in government formation.

Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, who was despatched to Shillong to explore ways of forming a Congress government, said the party had necessary support of MLAs to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly.

“Congress being the single largest party should be invited by the governor to form its government. We will prove our majority any time the governor asks,” he told TV channels in Shillong.