New Delhi: Even though national media’s attention would typically be on the larger states going to polls this November, keeping in mind their likely effect on the crucial 2024 parliamentary elections, the upcoming Mizoram assembly polls will nevertheless be momentous in the political history of the tiny northeastern border state – primarily for two reasons.
One, these elections would proffer the incumbent chief minister Zoramthanga a chance to repeat a win that was achieved by his party a decade ago, thus making him the chief minister for two consecutive terms back then. Will he and his party be able to echo that show of the 2003 elections is to be watched for? Additionally, another chief ministerial term would kick up Zoramthanga to the hallowed status of being the only Mizo to have the longest term on that high chair cumulatively. And, if by any chance, his party, the Mizo National Front (MNF), fails to pocket a win in the November 7 polls, he in all likelihood would walk into political retirement considering his advanced age.
Two, and more significantly, these elections would help Mizoram break out of the typical mold of voters having to choose a chief minister only from two available choices. Since 1988, the contenders for the chief minister’s chair were typically Congress’ Lalthanhawla and Zoramthanga from the MNF tent.
With the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) now having a president a few years younger than the octogenarian Pu Hawla in Lalsawta, and the new and rising regional entity, Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) having a face, Lalduhouma, who is also way younger to the incumbent chief minister, the 79-year-old Zoramthanga, the 35-year-old chief ministerial loop in that state is certainly getting a coat of sparkle and freshness this poll season.
Having strong credentials to back them, both Lalsawta and Lalduhouma are formidable claimants to the chief minister’s post too. Take Lalsawta. A former finance minister in the Lalthanhawla regime, Lalsawta has a clean public image. Political observers in the state believe that this three-time MLA could be a good choice for the state, particularly since the issue of Mizoram being a debt-ridden state is picking up traction in the run-up to the assembly polls.
The state Congress, this past October 11, held a press conference in Aizawl in response to the chief minister’s statement earlier this week claiming that Mizoram stood second lowest in terms of debt in the country. Congress legislative party leader Zodintuanga told reporters that he was “misleading and lying” to the public.
“It is very unfortunate that the chief minister was projecting the state’s debt with false parameters…Looking at our present debt, it is believed to go beyond 53.1% even when the actual is out. This means that Mizoram will still have the highest debt in the country,” The Mizoram Post reported from the press meet. In such a scenario, a chief ministerial face with proven credentials as a finance minister may cut some ice with the electorate.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidates list but Lalsawta is most likely to contest from the Aizawl East II constituency which was wrested from him by MNF candidate R.R. Royte in the 2018 polls.
Lalduhouma of ZPM too has a clean public image. For some months now, his party has been successful in catching voters’ interest. Such an assessment of the local reporters and political observers particularly got credence after ZPM swept the Lunglei municipal elections held this past March-end. A former IPS officer, Lalduhouma is the founding president of ZPM, formed in 2017, in the run-up to the last assembly elections. He had contested the 2018 polls from two seats and succeeded in winning both.
In the 2018 elections, the party had secured six seats. Since it was not a registered party, all its candidates contested as independents. This election though, it is a recognised party and has already declared names for all 40 constituencies including Twichawng in the Chakma autonomous council area. All its six MLAs in the present assembly have tendered resignation from the house recently to avoid the possibility of their disqualification for contesting the coming elections under the ZPM symbol.
The only thorn in ZPM’s way to success is a lingering doubt though among a section of voters that the party is close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2017, ZPM was a three-party formation, coming forward as a choice for a non-Congress and non-MNF government. Later, three other parties including the Zoram Nationalist Party, a former ally of the BJP, joined the alliance, thus firming up even further that closeness with the BJP, not quite the choice in a Christian-majority state.
Also read: Mizoram: Ahead of Polls, MNF’s Renewed Call for Zo Unification Creates Political Flutter
During a recent visit to the state, this correspondent has, however, noted a likely shift of voter sentiments towards MNF due to the Zoramthanga government’s all-out support to the larger cause of security and safety for the Zo people, not just by sheltering a sizeable number of refugees and leaders from conflict-ridden Myanmar for some time now but also the victims of the ethnic conflict fleeing neighbouring Manipur. With the chief minister reiterating the issue time and again, it is clear that MNF is banking on it hugely in the coming polls.
Photo: EastMojo
BJP factor
Mizoram is the only state where the BJP has not been able to form a government on its own or be part of the incumbent government. Though MNF is an ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), Zoramthanga has kept it at a distance considering BJP’s pro-Hindutva stance. Post Manipur strife, the party will particularly stay away from the BJP this poll season.
Meanwhile, the BJP is doing what it is best at – stealing MLAs and leaders from other parties in the northeast. Before the last polls, it succeeded in taking away from Congress Budha Dhan Chakma, a former minister in the Lalthanhawla government. Budha Dhan helped the BJP open its account in the Mizoram assembly in 2018.
This election, it is taking away two MLAs from its ally, MNF. This past October 11, assembly speaker and MNF leader L. Sailo resigned because he was denied a ticket by the party from the Chalfilh seat and at once joined the BJP. Though the BJP is yet to announce its candidates list for the state, he is most likely contesting on a BJP ticket from Mamit district.
This past week, yet another MNF leader, K. Beichhua, also joined the BJP and is also set to contest the polls on the party’s ticket. The former MNF minister seemed to have given out the gameplan of the BJP, a typical modus operandi that the national party has been following in the Christian-majority states. Beichhua told reporters that no political party is likely to get a majority in the coming polls and that elected BJP MLAs will then play an important role in forming a new government. Something that the party, even with just a handful of MLAs had done in Meghalaya and Nagaland, facilitated by a friendly governor posted strategically by the Modi government.
