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Tripura election 2018: Extended Holi for BJP as workers celebrate unassailable lead over CPI(M)

A day after the festival of Holi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers across the country celebrated once again with colours as the party headed for a massive win in Tripura Assembly elections.

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A day after the festival of Holi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers across the country once again celebrated with colours as the party headed for a massive win in Tripura Assembly elections.

BJP workers at party offices across the country, especially in Tripura, celebrated by dancing to the tunes of dhols and applied colours on each other.

The BJP is set to end 25 years of Left rule in Tripura and was leading on 40 seats along with its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) out of the 59 constituencies.

The election in 59 seats for the 60-member Tripura Assembly was held on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to the death of a CPI(M) candidate.

Assam Minister and BJP in-charge for the state Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the BJP will form the government after winning around 45 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly.

"We will be winning 44-45 seats in Tripura. We will form the government," he told reporters here as initial trends indicated that the BJP is leading in 25 seats out the 59 seats where elections were held.

Crediting the favourable results to the hardwork of party workers of Tripura in the last three years, Sarma said the merger of Trinamool Congress' Tripura unit with the BJP was the most significant factor in the politics of the Northeastern state as it consolidated the opposition and anti-CPI-M votes.

"People were fed up with the Manik Sarkar government which has been ruling the state for more than two decades and wanted to get rid of the CPI-M rule," he said.

The Assam education minister said the BJP's alliance with the tribal-dominated IPFT has also helped the saffron party.

"Tribal votes in Tripura is around 35% and they voted for the BJP lock, stock and barrel," he said.

Sarma also dismissed the suggestion that the minorities, particularly the Christians in the Northeast, were against the BJP saying the community "wholeheartedly" supported the party.

The counting of votes for Assembly elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland is also being conducted today. The Congress was ahead on 21 seats in Meghalaya, out of 59 constituencies. While the BJP is leading on 3 seats in the state ruled by the Congress, its NDA ally National People's Party is ahead in 18 assembly constituencies.

In Nagaland, the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) was ahead in 18 constituencies. The BJP and its ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) were also leading in 20 seats.

(With PTI inputs)

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