Northeast win gives Modi-Shah push for Lok Sabha fight, Congress-mukt India

BJP chief Amit Shah said the golden age of his party would be when it won West Bengal, Odisha, and Karnataka as well

The victories of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in three states of the Northeast would help it not only in achieving its ambition of a Congress-mukt (free) India but also to counter the law of diminishing returns it fears it might face in other regions of the country in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Party strategists are aware it might not be able to repeat its performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, especially in its traditionally strong bases in the north and the west, in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.