By noon, it was clear that the BJP had stormed the Left's bastion in Tripura. Soon, the celebrations began at the party's brand new headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in Delhi. To add to the party's thumping victory in Tripura, it was the front-runner to form governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland with the help of alliance partners, which was seen as icing on the cake, party workers said.
Two massive cut-outs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah were erected on the premises of the party office. It was the party's Mahila Morcha that kicked-off the celebrations with full throated chants of, "Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi", followed by "Ek hi naara, ek hi naam Jai Shree Ram".
But the one chant that captured the impact of the election result was; "Chappa Chappa, Bhajapa". The party's victory in Tripura and possible alliances in Meghalaya and Nagaland is a significant expansion of its electoral footprint, especially with the Lok Sabha elections just a year later.
Party leaders had readied everything for the celebrations. "We will have lots of sweets to distribute among party workers, we will have gulal and we will also have fireworks", said Kuldeep Chahal, party leader.
And the fireworks began soon as party workers swelled in numbers, holding BJP flags and small cut-outs of PM Modi, awaiting the arrival of party chief Amit Shah. The dhol party too arrived to welcome Shah and fireworks went off as his cavalcade neared the party office.
Party workers stood above the party entrance with rose petals and as soon after Shah's car arrived, he was showered with the petals and the workers surged to greet him.
The ordinary worker was especially happy about the party finally unseating the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Tripura. Siyaram Mandal, party office bearer from East Delhi said, "Tripura victory is for development and development promised and assured by PM Modi. People there were fed up of Left. Detractors were talking about notebandi and GST but we have trumped it. Modi magic is clearly still working and we hope that BJP will get 400+ in Lok Sabha elections."
BJPs Lok Sabha MP from Delhi Meenakshi Lekhi said that this was the result borne out of ideological commitment. "With this victory, the Left has been left out. The Kerala CPM can now say, we don't have any branches."
