"Tripura Fort To Crumble In Next Hour", Tweeted Leader As BJP Took Lead

Agartala: As the BJP surged ahead in Left-ruled Tripura, a leader of the party in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, posted this update on social media: "CPM Tripura fort to crumble in next 1 hour."

The biggest story in the northeast election - the first of a series of elections this year - is the end of Left's two-decade rule and four-time Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's almost impenetrable fortress in Tripura.

Putting up a remarkable show, the BJP and its alliance partner, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, surged ahead of the CPM-led Left Front as votes were counted for the state's 59 assembly constituencies on Saturday. Polling was cancelled in one constituency in the 60-member assembly after the death of a CPI-M candidate a week before the February 18 election.

The Left has ruled Tripura for the past 25 years.

"It is a historic verdict. CPM gave a spirited fight but people have voted for poribortan (change), accepted our slogan of 'Chalo Paltai (let's change)," senior BJP leader Ram Madhav told reporters.

For a long time after counting began, the Left and the BJP were locked in a neck-and-neck battle.

Manik Sarkar has won in his own constituency Dhanpur.

Jubilant BJP workers burst into celebrations around 11 am, when the situation finally seemed to vastly favour their party.

A CPM leader targeted Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). "We have already complained. The Election Commission is answerable," said CPM leader Suneet Chopra.

The BJP campaigned aggressively in Tripura, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressing four rallies in which he urged people to pick "HIRA (H for highway, I for Internet way, R for roadways and A for airways) instead of Manik", using a word play between hira (diamond) and manik (gem).

BJP leaders say their key strategy for the state pitted the Manik Sarkar government against "Modi sarkar".

Working meticulously through the Left bastion, the BJP assigned a worker for every 60 voters during its campaign.

It was undeterred by Manik Sarkar's squeaky clean image; data shows him as India's poorest chief minister. "It doesn't matter that the Chief Minister is clean, that he has only 1,600 in his pocket that is wife takes an auto-rickshaw. He presided over a corrupt government for so many terms," said Sunil Deodhar, the BJP's Tripura in-charge.

Sunil Deodhar, significantly, also handled PM Modi's campaign in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. The prime minister won from both Varanasi and Gujarat's Vadodara.

"Because of master-strategist Amit Shah and the help of Himanta Biswa Sarma and Ram Madhav, we are coming to power," Mr Deodhar said.

Comments

For Manik Sarkar, 69, it was a difficult fight after four terms in power.

Strategists have described the Tripura election as an anti-Manik Sarkar battle, not a pro-BJP one.

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