The BJP also won 60 of 126 seats in Assam, more than double Congress’s tally.
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Listing two priorities for the new government in Assam, chief minister-to-be Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday said sealing of borders with Bangladesh in two years and completion of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be done to put an end to infiltration.
BJP president Amit Shah attributes their super show in Assam to the Narendra Modi government’s policies and the opposition party’s “negative and obstructionist” politics. Most exit polls had predicted that the AIADMK would be unseated.
Congress won just 22 of the state assembly’s 140 seats, with the coalition it led winning 47 altogether.
Kerala was a cause for solace for the Left Front, as they emerged victorious in the state, beating the UDF. “Across India, people are placing their faith in BJP & see it as the party that can usher in all-round & inclusive development”, Modi tweeted after the numbers trickled in around noon on May 19. Even in Andhra Pradesh, it is only a junior ally of the TDP with only four seats in the 175-member Assembly against the TDP’s 102.
“Post 2014 General Elections, the Congress has increasingly adopted fringe positions”.
“This is for the first time in 49 years that such a massive mandate has been given to a single party”, said Banerjee, whose party hopes to win a whopping 212 seats.
The BJP was ultimately successful in breaking this record on Thursday, though only won one seat.
“BJP is forming government in Assam and the party’s vote share has increased in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal”.
The former movie star known as “Amma” (Mother) has long enjoyed a huge following in prosperous Tamil Nadu where she has won three terms as chief minister since 1991.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the party will introspect reasons for its loss and rededicate itself to the service of people with greater vigour. The party considers the Assam victory as its first firm footing in the Northeast, a region that has mostly been out of the party’s reach.
Naqvi claimed that while the CPI(M) has accepted its tie-up with Congress in West Bengal was a “blunder”.
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Every exit poll conducted in Assam had predicted that the BJP would come to power. Modi said “all of us” would together make efforts to bring about the change in the lives of common masses.
