NEW DELHI: The country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered impressive electoral performances as election results were announced Saturday in India’s three north-eastern states – Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Though final results would be announced by India’s Election Commission in the evening, live TV reports suggested that the BJP wrested Tripura from the Communists and seemed comfortably placed to form the next government in Nagaland with its alliance partner, while Meghalaya gave a fractured mandate. In Meghalaya, the country’s main opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC) had the erstwhile government. This time the INC seems to be winning in most number of constituencies, around 20 out of the total 59 constituencies that went to polls. Though the party was not able to open its account in both Tripura and Nagaland. Now, across the country the Communists have been reduced to just one state — Kerala. On the other hand, with both Tripura and Nagaland in the BJP’s kitty, the party will have governments in 21 states, while the main opposition party the INC has been reduced to just four states, namely, Punjab (in north India), Karnataka and Puducherry (both in south India), and Mizoram (in north-east India). BJP’s win in Tripura was hailed as the brightest feather in its cap as the party defeated the Communists who had successive governments in the state for over two decades. The BJP is also set to form the next government in Nagaland along with its alliance partner the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), with the two seen to be jointly winning nearly 30 constituencies. The BJP is also expected to form the next government in Meghalaya too, despite a hung Assembly there. “We will try to form a non-Congress government in Meghalaya as the people of the state have rejected the INC,” said senior BJP leader Ram Madhav in Tripura on Saturday afternoon. The BJP and its alliance partner, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura won in over 40 constituencies in Tripura out of the total 60, in sharp contrast with last year’s election (held in 2013) when the party could not even open its account and almost all its candidates had lost miserably. In Meghalaya the party is seen to be winning in around five constituencies. Published in Daily Times, March 4th 2018.