Agartala, Mar 3 (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally, the IPFT, on Saturday scripted history to win a two-thirds majority in the Tripura legislative assembly, ending the 25-year reign of the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The BJP captured 35 of the 59 seats in the 60-member assembly for which elections were held on February 18, while the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura won eight seats.

Polling was countermanded in one seat after the CPI(M) candidate died.

The saffron party inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Left Front, which had never faced such a situation, even when it had lost power in 1988 to the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity combine.

According to the Election Commission, the CPI(M) bagged 13 seats and was leading in another three till 8.30pm.

The BJP's spectacular performance came as a surprise for many as the party did not even have a councillor in Tripura.

It had secured less than two per cent votes in the 2013 Assembly polls in the state. 

The BJP, which contested in 51 seats, has secured over 43 per cent of the votes. The CPI(M)-led Left Front, which had captured 50 of the 60 seats in the 2013 Assembly elections, managed to secure nearly 42.6 per cent this time.

Among the winning candidates in the BJP were Biplab Deb, its state unit president.

Its ally IPFT, which fielded candidates in nine seats, got nearly eight per cent votes.

The Left Front had lost in 1988 Assembly polls to the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity combine by just one seat.

The Congress had a disastrous performance in the state as it failed to win even a single seat.  Its vote share dipped to less than two per cent.

The Congress had won 10 seats in 2013 Assembly polls. Six of its legislators had deserted the party in 2016 and switched over to the Trinamool Congress. They joined the BJP last year.

Another Congress lawmaker, Ratan Lal Nath, had also joined BJP two months before the Assembly elections and was disqualified by the Speaker under the anti-defection law.

BJP leader Ram Madhav said that the people in the state have voted for a change.

"They have supported our slogan for change,” he said, adding that the CPI(M) gave a “spirited fight”.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP leader in charge of the party's affairs in Tripura, said, “People were fed up with the Manik Sarkar government which has been ruling the state for more than two decades and wanted to get rid of the CPI(M) rule.”

He also said the BJP's alliance with the tribal-dominated IPFT helped the saffron party.

"Tribal votes in Tripura are around 35 per cent and they (tribals) voted for the BJP lock, stock and barrel,” he said.

Sarma also dismissed the suggestion that the minorities, particularly the Christians in the northeast, were against the BJP, saying the community “wholeheartedly” supported the party. 

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “Tripura voters have given their mandate for a BJP-IPFT government in the state. We thank the people of Tripura for giving us the opportunity to serve them for the past 25 years.”

He said that CPI(M) would continue to oppose the BJP and its “divisive agenda” not only in Tripura but throughout the country.  He alleged that the BJP has used both “money and muscle power in Tripura”.