Before going into the Assembly Elections in Tripura, the BJP think-tank was confident of a major upset in Tripura and truly, the results are absolutely echoing that. BJP has done a miracle in Tripura, the red bastion of the Indian Communists, marching ahead to a historic win, ousting the Manik Sarkar government. In the last Assembly Elections, BJP failed to win a single seat and got minimal 1.45% vote share.

The organizational rigour of a regimented party CPIM can never be ignored and Manik Sarkar was expected to continue his red march in the state for yet another term. From a broader perspective, the 25 year old Left Front government was a big hurdle for the BJP in their quest for north east India. After the dominant victory in Assam, BJP has been carefully introspecting the prospects of the party and possible growth in the north east. Barring Tripura, other north eastern states were previously dominated by Congress. Already in other states, BJP has been marching ahead and this time too, in both Nagaland and Meghalaya, the saffron outfit has performed exceedingly well.

The BJP win in Tripura is important from different perspectives.  As Tripura is lost, the Communists in India can only bank upon Kerala where the Pinarayi Vijayan government is already facing a crisis for corruption allegations and state sponsored red-terrorism.  Altogether it won’t be an exaggeration to say that the Communists are silently facing fading away from electoral democracy in spite of their Maoist inclinations and anti-national stance on various issues of national interest.  

The loss in Tripura is the beginning of transformation of Bengali bhadralok psyche, which can be instrumental in West Bengal as well.  The Bengalis who reside in large numbers in Tripura are certainly embracing the developmental agenda of ‘bikash’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.  Interestingly, Congress has failed to win a single seat in Tripura, where it ruled even a few decades back. This surely highlights that ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ is going to be a reality in near future.  Overall, the victory in Tripura calls for the need of a new narrative in politics of eastern India. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can certainly begin counting her days in West Bengal.  And lastly, this victory will definitely enable the Narendra Modi government to tackle the sensitive immigrant crisis across the Bangladesh border.