Mizoram: Assembly elections
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
2018, 23
From: Dec 5, 2023: The Times of India
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Vote share- Mizoram, assembly elections, 2018-23
YEAR WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2013, 2018
The results
From: [From the archives, Oct 10, 2023: The Times of India]
See graphic:
The results of the elections to the Legislature Assembly in Mizoram in 2013, 2018
2018
The results
Comparisons with the 2013 assembly elections.
From: Prabin Kalita, December 12, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
The results of the Mizoram assembly elections, 2018
Comparisons with the 2013 assembly elections
MNF sweeps Mizoram
Prabin Kalita, MNF sweeps Mizoram, NE now ‘Cong-mukt’, December 12, 2018: The Times of India
Independents Win More Than GOP; CM Loses Both Seats
Mizo National Front (MNF), an NDA constituent, returned to power on Tuesday after 10 years in Christian-majority Mizoram, reducing Congress to single figures. Its resounding victory will offer some solace to BJP, which suffered big electoral setbacks in the Hindi heartland.
Led by former guerrilla leader Zoramthanga, the pro-Church, pro-liquor ban MNF won 26 of the 40 assembly seats. Congress could get just five seats, three less than the Independents owing allegiance to the regional Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). Adding to the humiliation, five-time sitting Congress chief minister Lal Thanhawla lost both the seats — Serchhip and Champhai South — that he had contested.
With the fall of the Grand Old Party in Mizoram, where Christians comprise 97% of the population, the seven-state northeast region has now become “Congress-mukt”. Over the past two years, BJP has been able to grab power in the six other NE states — Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya — either on its own strength or by aligning with regional forces. The party managed to win its first assembly seat in Mizoram with Buddha Dhan Chakma emerging victorious from Tuichawng.
Quick in celebrating MNF’s victory, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who heads the North East Democratic Alliance (Neda), tweeted: “With Mizoram, constituents of #NEDA will head govt in entire northeast. We worked towards it tirelessly for last three years under leadership of @narendramodi. Congratulations to Pu Zoramthanga for historic win of #MNF in #Mizoram. Meanwhile, @BJP4India also opens its account in Mizoram.”
In the spring of 2016, days after BJP ousted Congress from power in Assam, the saffron party and its regional allies had founded Neda, the northeast version of NDA, of which MNF is a member. But MNF and BJP fought the election separately, which many attribute to the state’s religious sensitiveness.
Zoramthanga thanked “God and my people” for MNF’s victory. “I am delighted that my predictions have come true. I had said we would win between 25 and 30 seats, and Congress would get fewer than 10,” remarked the 74-year-old MNF chief, a key leader of the 1966-87 Mizo rebellion that forced Delhi to deploy IAF aircraft, the first and only instance of use of air power against civilians in the country.
After the verdict, MNF reiterated its commitment to impose a liquor ban, which Congress had diluted by allowing brewing of local wine and restricted sale of IMFL. The partial relaxation of prohibition had upset the church. Within two hours of the results, Zoramthanga called a meeting of newly elected MNF legislators who unanimously chose him leader of the legislature party. Soon after this, he drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the next government.
Lal Thanhawla, after submitting his resignation, said, “I have been there for 10 years... I don’t know what went wrong. Maybe, people wanted change.”
2023
Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) wins
Prabin Kalita, Dec 5, 2023: The Times of India
From: Prabin Kalita, Dec 5, 2023: The Times of India
Guwahati : Mizoram’s 8.5 lakh-strong electorate turned its back on NDA ally Mizo National Front (MNF) and old favourite Congress – the only two parties to have governed since statehood came in 1987 – and gave a 27-seat mandate in the House of 40 to exIPS officer Lalduhoma’s Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), which until four years ago wasn’t even a registered party.
While Lalduhoma won from Serchhip, outgoing CM Zoramthanga lost the Aizawl East-1 seat to ZPM’s Lalthansanga by 2,101 votes. Besides Zoramthanga, Mizoram had only Lal Thanhawla of Congress as CM in the past 36 years.
If MNF’s ouster and the end of Zoramthanga’s term as CM headlined the outcome of the November 7 election, Congress winning a lone seat and slipping to fourth behind BJP (2) was the shocker. MNF got 10 seats, 17 short of its 2018 tally. In the previous election, Congress won 4 seats.
Soon after the results, CMaspirant Lalduhoma said his party wouldn’t be part of NDA or the opposition alliance INDIA. “We don’t want to be dictated to from Delhi. Our relationship with the central government will be issue-based.”
Details
Sukrita Baruah, Dec 5, 2023: The Indian Express
SHATTERING A 36-year-long duopoly of the Mizo National Front (MNF) and Congress in Mizoram, newcomer Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) registered a comprehensive victory in the Assembly elections, winning 27 out of the 40 seats.
The ZPM’s chief ministerial candidate Lalduhoma, a former IPS officer, won from Serchhip constituency and looked all set to lead the new government. The party will stake claim to form the government after holding a meeting of newly elected MLAs and senior party leaders.
Lalduhoma told reporters in the evening that his party would not join the National Democratic Alliance, which the MNF is currently a part of. “We are not going to join any political group at the national level. We don’t want to be dictated from Delhi. We want to take the final decision with our own hands here. But our relationship with the central government will remain on an issue basis,” he said.
During the course of its campaign, the ZPM had accused the MNF of having lost its regional character by being an NDA constituent and had claimed to be the only true regional party in the fray, thereby attempting to undercut the MNF’s claims to be the champions of Mizo nationalism.
The ZPM’s sweep included all 10 Aizawl seats and all four seats in Lunglei – Mizoram’s second largest town. Apart from Zoramthanga, the major upsets for the MNF included defeats for Deputy Chief Minister Tawnluia, ministers Lalruatkima and R Lalthangliana, and the state’s lone Rajya Sabha MP K Vanlalvena.
From 26 wins in 2018, the MNF has been reduced to 10 seats this time. The party had come under fire during campaigning from all parties, including the ZPM, for alleged corruption and its inability to deliver some of its key promises, the most notable being the promise of financial assistance of Rs 3 lakh to all families. The government has so far given Rs 25,000 to 60,000 families and Rs 50,000 to another 60,000 under its Socio-Economic Development Scheme.
Conceding defeat, Zoramthanga attributed the party’s loss to anti-incumbency. He also pointed at the Covid pandemic as a reason for the party’s failure to live up to its promises.
“It is because of the anti-incumbency effect… the people are aggrieved and not satisfied with my performance because of this Covid onslaught. So I lost my government,” he told reporters, adding that he accepts the people’s verdict.
Notably, two of the MNF 10 wins were recorded in West Tuipui and Tuichawng, both of which are strongholds of the ethnic minority Chakma community. In the run-up to the election, the party had heavily leaned on its Mizo nationalist identity. With the ZPM winning 27 seats, the space for a regional Mizo voice has now been taken over by it.
Another significant outcome of the election is the BJP expanding its footprint in the state with two seats – Saiha and Palak – both of which have a sizeable ethnic minority population. In 2018, the party won its first and only seat in the Mizoram Assembly – Tuichawng.
After its image took a beating among the Christian Mizos because of the ethnic violence in neighbouring Manipur – where the Kuki-Zomis, in conflict with the Meiteis, are of the same ethnicity as the Mizos – the BJP was aware that it would find it difficult to make inroads in the community. Because of this, the party focused its resources and energy on minority seats, a strategy that appears to have yielded some dividends.
Historically, elections in Mizoram have largely been dictated by anti-incumbency, with the electorate alternating between the MNF and Congress. The outcome this time is no different, but with the rise of a third front in the form of the ZPM, decades of anti-incumbency against the MNF and Congress worked in its favour.
The ZPM was formed as a coalition of six small regional parties and civil society organisations in 2017, and was not a recognised party during the last election in 2018. It had then backed 38 Independent candidates, of whom eight won.
This was its first election in which it contested as a recognised party.
While the ZPM had primarily banked on the deep-rooted anti-incumbency, its key promise for its “new system of government” has been Minimum Support Prices for four local produces: ginger, turmeric, chilli and broomgrass. After Monday’s victory, Lalduhoma said that one of his government’s first steps will be to buy produce from farmers at the promised MSPs.
The Congress on the other hand has been reduced to its worst position yet in the state. After being in government for two terms, the party could win just five seats in 2018. This time, it managed to win only one seat.
