Left is not right for any part of India: Amit Shah on BJP's Northeast surge

BJP Chief Amit Shah gave credit to the development agenda of the Narendra Modi-led government for the party’s impressive performance in Tripura and announced that the new dispensation in the state will include ally IPFT.

Speaking to reporters at the BJP headquarters, Shah said the performance of his party and its allies in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya will enthuse the cadre to work for victories in Karnataka Assembly polls next month.

Shah said BJP had got only 1.3 per cent votes in the last Assembly polls in Tripura and all its candidates, except one, had lost their deposit. However, this time BJP has won 50 per cent votes and got 43 seats out of 59.


“In Nagaland, we have got around 12.1 per cent of the votes and won 10 seats while in Meghalaya our performance has been good,” Shah said. He maintained that Congress has not got a majority in Meghalaya and it is a hung Assembly.

“At one time, BJP was called a Hindi belt party but today NDA has governments in 21 states,” Shah said.

He declared that BJP will form a government in Tripura with its ally IPFT. The two parties have won all the 20 tribal seats of Tripura.

“Earlier also funds would be allocated for the north-east states but it is only during the rule of Narendra Modi that the development is reaching the state. The people of Tripura have chosen to become a part of this development journey,” Shah said.

Since the formation of the Modi government in 2014, BJP has been very active in the North-East. Shah said the Prime Minister had underlined that while the western part of India had developed, the East and the North-East had lagged behind.

Shah maintained that Modi had given the “Act East” directive to the party. Since Morarji Desai’s time, the first meeting of the North Eastern Council was held at Shillong (in May 2o16) which was attended by Modi, Shah emphasised.

One union minister has visited some part of the North East every fortnight since May 2014.

BJP also slammed the Left for political violence with Shah alleging nine party workers had lost their lives to it in Tripura.

“The Left is not right for India. Nobody wants them,” Shah said, adding that the Congress has not won any seat in Tripura and Nagaland.

Shah dismissed the Left charge that BJP had used money and muscle power to win in Tripura and said since they cannot blame EVMs as VVPAT (paper trail) was used they are resorting to such allegations. He said states ruled by the Left have always lagged behind on development and faced poverty while Modi has stood for politics of performance.

The BJP Chief maintained that the “golden years” of the party were yet to come and this would happen only after they won in Odisha, Bengal and Kerala.

“Our confidence has got a boost with these results. The workers in Karnataka and also in Bengal and Kerala are upbeat,” Shah said. The cadre will work with renewed enthusiasm for the 2019 polls after this performance, he added.