Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday termed the BJP's performance in Tripura an "ideological victory" and said the message should be spread across the country to maintain its winning streak.
Modi was addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Party meeting, where he was felicitated by the party leaders amid chants of "Jeet Hamari Jaari Hai, Ab Karnataka Ki Baari Hai" (our winning streak continues, now it is Karnataka's turn).
"The party's victory in Tripura is the victory of BJP's ideology because it was the citadel of Left since the last 25 years. We will have to maintain this winning streak by working hard," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar quoted Modi as having said in the meeting.
Kumar said the Prime Minister also expressed satisfaction over the party's performance in Meghalaya and Nagaland, and said it had energised the party.
Dismissing the efforts made by some critics to play down the Tripura verdict by calling it a small state, Modi laid stress on the significance of the win, according to informed sources.
"Wherever the BJP registers a spectacular victory, some smaller incidents are raised and given hype by the opposition parties to divert people's attention.
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"The Left ideology is based on violence and hate and this is the reason they have been rejected from everywhere. In India, they are only left in Kerala," one of the MPs present in the meeting quoted Modi as having said.
The BJP and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) swept the February 18 polls, winning 43 of the 59 seats.
The BJP secured 35 seats in the 60-member Assembly and the IPFT, a tribal-based party, eight. The Communist Party of India-Marxist got 16 seats while the Congress drew a blank.
BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb will assume office on Friday as the 11th Chief Minister of Tripura.
The newly-elected MLAs of the BJP and IPFT met in Agartala in the presence of central observers and Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Jual Oram, and elected Deb as leader of the party's Legislature Party.
According to informed sources, the Prime Minister said that party's performance in northeastern states holds importance in view of the development works carried out by the NDA government after it came to power.
"The party will focus on the issue of development. The workers need to work hard to maintain this winning streak," Modi said, adding that there was an atmosphere of hope and expectation in the country.
During his speech, Modi also informed the MPs about the dinner meeting to be held on Friday in the newly-constructed party headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg.
Party chief Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh were absent from the meeting as they were in Meghalaya attending the swearing-in ceremony of the government.
National People's Party (NPP) leader Conrad Kongkal Sangma, son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma, was on Tuesday sworn in as the 12th Chief Minister of Meghalaya. The 40-year-old Tura Lok Sabha member was projected as the leader of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) coalition.
The MDA includes five political parties -- six MLAs from the United Democratic Party, four from the People's Democratic Front, two each from the Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) and the BJP, one from the Nationalist Congress Party -- besides two Independent members.
In Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio is set to take over again as the Chief Minister. Rio, who floated the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) just ahead of the assembly elections, had cobbled up a pre-poll alliance with the BJP.
The NDPP got 17 seats, while the BJP got 12. The Janata Dal United (JD-U), which is a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner and has won one seat in the state, has already pledged its support to Rio, and so has the sole Independent MLA.
This adds up to 31 seats -- over half the number required to form a government in a House of 60 seats.
--IANS
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