Early leads are in favour of the BJP as the counting of votes for Assembly elections began in the Northeastern states of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. The party is leading in postal votes in all three states.
Just an hour into the elections, the BJP has a clear lead in Tripura, where it will likely retain power. Banking on the heavy support of the government employees, the Manik Saha-led BJP has had a lead over almost 31 seats.
The Tipra Motha, led by former royal Pradyot Debbarma, was leading in 12 seats and the main opposition, the Congress-CPM alliance, was currently ahead in 15 seats.
Going by the early trends, the BJP-led coalition is also heading towards a clear victory in Nagaland. An hour after the counting began, the BJP-NDDP coalition is ahead in 49 out of 60 seats, where the majority mark is 31. The BJP has lead over 12 seats after first round. As per the seat-sharing agreement, the NDPP had candidates in 40 constituencies, while BJP contested 20 seats.
Meanwhile, source say BJP has already won one seat in Nagaland.
In Meghalaya, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma's NPP is making huge gains, just as the exit polls have predicted. However, it is Mamata Banerjee's TMC that pulled a surprise with leads in 20 states just after 9 am. The saffron party is leading in 10 seats in Meghalaya, a considerable improvement compared to the last term where it won just two seats.
Counting of votes for all three states began at 8 am amid tight security.
