Big jolt to Left as BJP surges ahead in Tripura

NEW DELHI: After 25 years under the Left Front's rule, Tripura may well swing right in 2018 as the BJP and its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) gained the upper hand in 42 seats of the 60-strong legislative assembly.

If current trends hold, the BJP will comfortably secure the majority of 31 seats required to form the government.

The saffron party's resurgence in Tripura can be gauged from the fact that it won no seats in the last election.

After taking an initial lead in the counting of votes, the CPM-led Left Front was soon playing catch-up with the BJP-IPFT alliance. It is now trailing, and is ahead in only 16 seats.

The ruling coalition's dismal show is a complete turnabout from its performance in the 2013 assembly polls, when it won 50 seats and returned to power for the fifth time in a row.

Congress, too, had a poor showing, and was trailing in all the constituencies where it fielded a candidate. The party had bagged 10 seats in the 2013 assembly polls.

Chief minister Manik Sarkar put up a good fight and was leading from the Dhanpur constituency by a margin of over 2,200 votes.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath hailed the early trends and said the party was on course to a "historic" victory in the north-eastern state.

"BJP is all set for a historic win in Tripura, I would like to congratulate PM Modi, Amit Shah ji and our party workers. Even our performance in Nagaland and Meghalaya is historic. Important day in Indian politics," news agency quoted Adityanath as saying.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that the saffron party will 44-45 seats in Tripura to form the government.

BJP leader Ram Madhav told reporters that the party is leading in "those seats which we did not expect" and credited the hard work of party workers in Tripura for the strong showing.

BJP supporters were in celebratory mode as the trends showed the party steadily gaining an insurmountable lead over the CPM.

Election in 59 seats for the 60-member Tripura Assembly was held on February 18. Polling was deferred in one seat due to the death of a CPM candidate.