Northeast election results: 5 key takeaways from the verdict

1. PM Narendra Modi's pre-eminence emphasised yet again. The results especially BJP’s grand win in Tripura+ , show that his appeal and the promise of development can still work. The outcome will help BJP counter the perception that it is on the wane. A morale booster ahead of Karnataka polls, it will also reinforce Amit Shah’s confidence that the party will make enough gains in "new territories" to make up for the inevitable loss of some of the seats it swept in 2014.

2. Saturday put a spanner in Congress party's efforts to project that it is on the recovery trail. The results underline its popularity deficit in vast stretches and the advantage BJP enjoys because of its hunger for victory, as well as a well-oiled party machine. Congress desperately needs to retain Karnataka to strengthen its claim to be an effective challenger for the battles to follow, leading up to the big one in 2019. It may also have to work to forge a broad anti-BJP front


3. RSS has reason to rejoice. It had been seething since 2001 when four of its 'pracharaks' were abducted in Tripura and killed in Myanmar. The Vajpayee government’s failure to secure their release upset the Sangh and caused it to campaign only halfheartedly in the 2004 polls. The formation of a saffron government in Tripura should lead an ecstatic Nagpur to put aside the grievances of its affiliates and throw its weight fully behind Modi’s 2019 Lok Sabha campaign


4. The continued presence of a BJP-linked government in Nagaland should help implement the ‘framework’ agreement to resolve the country’s oldest insurgency, which was signed in 2015. The election results will encourage national security adviser A K Doval to accelerate efforts for an early closure on negotiations


5. BJP may have to moderate its stand on wedge issues like cattle slaughter, or risk being at a disadvantage in Christian-majority states.