BJP makes history in Tripura

Agartala (Tripura) [India], Mar. 3 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has created history by winning the Tripura Assembly Elections with a thumping majority.

By winning 35 seats, the party has broken the 25-year-old reign of the Left Front, which managed to win 16 seats.

In a huge setback, the Congress party won no seat in the elections while the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) won eight seats.

The elections were a role reversal for the Congress party and the BJP as the latter had not won any seat in 2013.

Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda addressed the media and called the victory in Tripura significant.

"BJP and its allies share more than 50 percent of popular votes. This is a victory for democracy, and against violence for which Communist Party of India (Marxist) is well known," said JP Nadda.

Meanwhile, Nadda said that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and BJP leader Jual Oram would go as observers to Tripura.

He further said, "Arun Singh and I will go to Nagaland and Kiren Rijiju and KJ Alphons will go to Meghalaya to elect the chief ministers.

On the other hand, National General Secretary Ram Madhav expressed happiness over the results, saying the party was able to win due to their democratic method of contesting the elections.

"We're extremely happy. We contested for 20 seats and have won 11 seats. CPI used goondaism and got rejected by the people. We have only used democratic methods to contest this election," Madhav told ANI.

He further said the Congress party is not even "relevant" in Tripura and Nagaland.

As soon the counting of votes began on Saturday morning, the trends reflected a close fight between the ruling Left and the BJP. As the day progressed, the BJP surged ahead, leaving the CPI-M behind.

Tripura went to polls on February 18 and recorded nearly 92 percent voting. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI