Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday commended the people of Tripura for bringing the curtains down on 25 years of the Communist rule in the state and giving the BJP a decisive mandate in the state assembly elections.

In the same breath, the PM also assured the people of Tripura, Nagaland and other Northeastern states that his government would leave nothing to chance to live up to their expectations and take the region to the “pinnacle of progress and development”.

PM Modi’s remarks came here in the course of an address to the BJP workers at the newly- constructed party central headquarters this evening following the party’s “historic” triumph over the incumbent CPM-led Left in Tripura. “Let me assure to the people (of Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya and other Northeastern states) that we would return their blessings bestowed on us with interest in the form of development.

We shall not rest unless we have taken development to a new height in the Northeast,” he said. PM Modi, who was earlier welcomed by the party president Amit Shah upon his arrival at the party headquarters, halted his speech for two minutes due to Azaan, the call for Muslims’ prayer.

He also recalled the “sacrifices” made by his party workers and observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the party’s ‘martyrs’ in Tripura, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha and other states.

“Many innocent BJP workers had to sacrifice their lives due to political and ideological differences. Left parties owing allegiance to Maoist ideology took recourse to twin weapons of intimidation and confusion and perpetrated a reign of terror on their political opponents.

But people have given them a befitting reply,” the PM said. He appealed to the party’s political rivals, mainly the Left, to show sportsman’s spirit in their defeat if they are true adherents of democratic values and principles. He said the BJP by virtue of its organisational strength under the leadership of Shah and party workers has managed to ensure party’s victory in the Tripura and Nagaland Assembly polls.

The PM also sought to give the credit of the party’s victory to young leadership of Tripura whom he described as ‘Bal Sena’. He pointed out that the team of the BJP’s newly-elected MLAs there are among the youngest legislators in the country.

He said it was the BJP-led central government’s work to ensure all-round development for people of the Northeast that paid the party rich dividends. PM Modi said during the last four years of his government, “We have worked silently to remove this sense of alienation among the people of Northeast.”

He said there was a time when the party was non-existent in the Northeast. “Today, the BJP has its presence in every corner,” he added. Seeking to keep up the BJP’s momentum, the PM called for a 360 degree approach to working a strategy for the states of Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

He expressed confidence that the party under Shah’s leadership would be able to achieve its goals.