NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party won power in remote northeast Assam and made gains in other states on Thursday, expanding its political influence beyond its traditional heartland two years after a landslide national election victory.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party seized control of restive Assam from the centre-left Congress party, which promised to "work harder" to win people's confidence after losing ground in several states.
"These results show that the people are accepting, appreciating and supporting our pro-development ideology," Modi told supporters at his party's headquarters in New Delhi.
Assam is the first northeastern state to be controlled by the BJP, whose traditional power base is in Hindi-speaking north, central and west India.
Political analyst Ashok Malik told AFP that Thursday's results showed the BJP was now India's only truly national party.
"This expansion for the BJP comes at a time when the Congress is shrinking, even though they have different social constituencies," said Malik, a fellow with New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank.
"And now, the BJP is the only pan-India national party, which the Congress once used to be."
The BJP needs to win state elections to gain more seats in the nation's upper house of parliament, which has been blocking reforms seen as crucial to fuelling the economic growth it has promised voters.
Most members of the upper house, which has obstructed measures such as a planned standardised goods and services tax, are indirectly elected by state legislatures.
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