Modi: Tripura win is an ideological victory

New Delhi: Welcomed with slogans “jeet hamari jaari hai, ab Karnataka ki baari hai (continuing with the victory march, we will win Karnataka)” at the BJP parliamentary party meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said party’s win over the Left in Tripura was an “ideological victory” and asked party leaders to make the most of it in the coming months. He said the Left ideology was finished across the world and is on the “verge of oblivion in India.”  

Mr Modi said to downplay his party’s win in Tripura, some critics had described Tripura as “a small state with only two Lok Sabha seats.”

“..But each state and election is important,” said the Prime Minister and described the BJP’s performance in Tripura as “historic.”

He remembered how the BJP’s win in one Assembly seat in Kerala polls had also energised the cadres. Mr Modi also paid tribute to the nine BJP workers who were allegedly killed by the Left supporters in Tripura during the run-up to the state polls. Karnataka is the next state where assembly election are scheduled and the BJP is making all-out efforts to oust the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government.

Mr Modi said Tripura was considered a bastion of Marxism for the last 25 years but the poll verdict is an ideological victory which changed the mood in the party and the nation.

“There is hope and expectation in the country and the party needs to work hard to maintain its winning streak,” said parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar while quoting Mr Modi.

Targeting the Left, Mr Modi said its politics was underpinned by violence and hate and that people have rejected it everywhere.

“It is finished across the world and is on the verge of oblivion in India as it is now in power only in Kerala,” Mr Modi said.

In a lighter vein, the Prime Minister said that whenever the BJP wins an election, small issues are “magnified” to divert attention from its victory.

“..But this time the focus has been at its performance in the three states,” he said.

All BJP MPs were distributed “angavastram” brought by the party from these states and offered “prasad” from Assam’s Kamakhya temple, which is believed by the faithful to be protector of the Northeast region.

The Prime Minister also asked party MPs to take to the masses the budget highlights, which are aimed at making of a “New India”.