Hailing BJP win in Tripura and Nagaland, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said the poll result is a clear approval of the development politics launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the North-East and a signal that the party would wrest Karnataka in the upcoming elections from the Congress which has been rejected by the electorate in several States.
Stating that the outcome in Tripura, Nagaland and also in Meghalaya is against the Congress and the left politics of non-performance, Shah said BJP's golden era would begin only after the party scores victories in Karnataka, West Bengal and Odisha. He said these positive results augur well for the party's success in 2019 lok Sabha elections.
Shah was addressing newspersons as hundreds of BJP workers gathered around BJP's new headquarters at 6-A , Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and danced to the beating of drums and showing of lotus petals to celebrate party's win in the NE. A day after, the party office still looked in the grip of Holi revelry.
Highlighting BJP's stupendous landing in Tripura as a ruling party ousting 25-year-old CPI-M rule, BJP Chief said from a negligible 1.3 per cent votes in Tripura in 2013 and not a single seat to keep in the state , the BJP has "leapfrogged" to 50 per cent votes share and 43 seats in the assembly.
He said after Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, it is the third clear victory to the BJP in last three months. The hard work by the party workers and their " sacrifices" fructified 'Chalo Paltain' ( let's usher change) movement in the state, said the BJP president.
In Tripura BJP with its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), BJP bagged all the 20 tribal seats out of total 60 seats in the assembly. Even though BJP has got a majority in Tripura assembly on its own, the party would include its allies in the state government.
In Nagaland, he said BJP had only 1.8 per cent vote share and one seat that today has gone up to 12.1 per cent with the party winning 10 assembly seat. Together with the pre-poll alliance partner NDPP, the BJP has collected 37 per cent votes in Nagaland.
In Meghalaya too, Shah said the verdict is against the ruling Congress as it did not get majority. Answering a question , he said there is no question of horse-trading and whichever party gets support of the majority of MlAs would form the government in the state. " All these results are indicative of party's imminent victory in Karnataka", said the BJP President and pointed out that BJP has now become an all India party and can not just be tagged as the party of Hindi-heartland. In saying so he mentioned BJP's footprints all over the country .
He attributed victories to the pace of development initiated by the Modi-government in the North-East , right utilization of the development fund and party's strong effort to strengthen organization at all levels including that of booth committees in the region.
Shah said BJP's victory would encourage party workers not only in Karnataka but in West Bengal and Kerala which, he said had experienced politics of violence for too long. He said Congress has been roundly rejected in Tripura and Nagaland where it did not get a single seat. As far left, he said no one likes it as after West Bengal it has been rejected in Tripura too. Kerala is the only state where the left parties have their Government.