Modi’s nationalist BJP ends 25-year communist party rule in northern state election

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party on Saturday ended the 25-year uninterrupted rule of a communist party in a northeastern state and consolidated its position in two other states in key provincial elections.

An impressive win is expected to boost the prospects of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party when it seeks a second term in national elections next year. The BJP has been riding a wave of rising Hindu nationalism in the country.

With results announced for all 59 seats in Tripura’s state legislature, the BJP had won a big majority to form a government on its own in the state, replacing the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M). It also looked like it could win a majority with support from other groups in Meghalaya and Nagaland states.

The BJP won 35 seats in Tripura’s state legislature against the CPI (M)’s 16 seats, according to India’s Election Commission. The remaining eight seats went to a regional group, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura.

The voting was a test for Rahul Gandhi, the 47-year-old heir to India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, who took over as the main opposition Congress party’s president from his mother, Sonia Gandhi, in December.