The Congress won a thumping victory in Mizoram, a state that it gets to rule now for the second consecutive term. And a chief minister who will have a record fifth term in office.
Agency Report
Aizawl: The Congress retained power by zooming past the halfway mark in the 40-member assembly by winning 27 seats and being ahead in at least one more constituency.
Congress leader and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, 71, was elected to the state assembly for a record ninth time.
This is for the fifth time the Congress has come to power in the northeastern state of Mizoram, which shares borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh. In the outgoing assembly, the Congress had 32 seats.
“There was not a single instance of irregularities of our government. People voted us seeing the success of our government,” Lal Thanhawla, who is also the state Congress chief, said after the emphatic win.
Lal Thanhawla established the Congress base in the tribal and Christian dominated state.
Thousands of Congress activists celebrated here and across the state as election results began to pour in.
According to election officials at about 6 p.m., Congress candidates won 27 seats and were leading in one seat while the opposition three-party Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA) led by the Mizo National Front (MNF) has won four seats and Mizoram People’s Conference was leading on one seat in this state of over one million people.
The Nationalist Congress Party candidate was also leading on one seat.
Lal Thanhawla contested from two constituencies and won both Serchhip and Hrangturzo seats, defeating his nearest MNF and Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) rivals.
Lal Thanhawla, who with this election has been elected to the state assembly for a record nine times since 1978, defeated his nearest MNF rival C. Lalramzauva, a lawyer and a three-term former legislator, in Serchhip by a margin of 734 votes while he retained the Hrangturzo seat beating MPC opponent Lalthansanga by 1,628 votes.
The only non-Mizo Congress candidate and Chakma tribe leader, Buddha Dhan Chakma won the Tuichawng seat in southern Mizoram, beating MNF nominee Rasik Mohan Chakma by a big margin of 8,726 votes.
Unlike the last assembly polls in 2008, the Congress did well in both southern and northern Mizoram, which shares borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.
MNF candidate Lalrinawma wrested the Tuikum seat, defeating Congress aspirant K. Lianzuala by a thin margin of only 14 votes.
“Under tight security blanket, counting of ballots has been underway in eight district headquarters simultaneously since 8 a.m.,” Mizoram Joint Chief Electoral Officer H. Lalengmawia told IANS.
Over 81 percent of the total 690,860 voters exercised their franchise across the state Nov 25 to elect a new 40-member assembly.
The main poll battle was between the ruling Congress and opposition coalition MDA, comprising Mizo National Front (MNF), Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) and Maraland Democratic Front (MDF), all regional and local parties.
MDA’s constituents MNF, MPC and MDF have fielded candidates for 31, eight and one seat respectively.
With little base in the Christian dominated northeastern state, the Bharatiya Janata Party put up 17 candidates, Zoram Nationalist Party named 38 candidates and the Nationalist Congress Party had two aspirants.
Of the 40 assembly seats, 39 are reserved for tribals. One seat is for the general category.
Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in seven camps in Tripura for the past 16 years, have cast their votes in Tripura through postal ballots for the Mizoram assembly polls.
During the last assembly elections in December 2008, the Congress won 32 seats, the MNF three and the MDF one. The MPC and ZNP got two seats each.
The MNF, which ruled the state for 10 years till 2008, is the principal opposition party.
With a total population of 1,091,014, Mizoram is the only state in India where women voters outnumber men by 9,806 in the total electorate of 690,860.
We won as no irregularity in our government: Lal Thanhawla
Aizawl: There was not “a single instance of irregularity of our government”, said Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla Monday after he led the Congress to victory in Mizoram for a second consecutive term.
“People accepted our New Land Use Policy (NLUP) for their economic development. Opposition parties’ so-called poll promises have been rejected by the electorate,” said Lal Thanhawla, who was elected to the state assembly from two cosntituencies in central Mizoram.
The Congress-led Mizoram government’s flagship programme NLUP and the proposed Special Economic Development Programme of the Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA), led by the Mizo National Front (MNF), figured prominently during their campaigns in the Nov 25 elections to the 40-member assembly.
The NLUP was a special farming-cum-poverty alleviation project, launched in 2010 to support 125,000 “Jhumia” (shifting cultivator) families in four phases and the centre provided Rs.2,873 crore for it.
The scheme aimed to benefit the farmers to solve food scarcity by moving away from “jhum cultivation” (slash and burn method of cultivation) to stable farming.
“There was not a single instance of irregularities of our government. People voted us seeing the success of our government,” Lal Thanhawla, 71, who is also the state Congress chief, told reporters.
Lal Thanhawla becomes Mizoram CM for record fifth time
By Sujit Chakraborty
Aizawl: Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, all set to assume office for a fifth time after leading the Congress party to a huge electoral win in the state assembly polls, is an acknowledged, tall political leader in the northeastern state for over a record four and half decades.
Assiduous and tenacious, Lal Thanhawla established the Congress base in the tribal and Christian dominated state literally like a lone ranger, with his untiring and determined effort since he joined the party 46 years ago.
“Due to his years of exceedingly hard work, sterling leadership quality and a deep commitment to the cause of people, Lal Thanhawla has become the most admired leader of Mizoram,” said veteran Congress leader Birajit Sinha.
The 71-year-old Lal Thanhawla first became the chief minister of Mizoram in 1984 when under his leadership the party swept the assembly polls in the state, which shares unfenced borders with Myanmar (404 km) and Bangladesh (318 km).
Son of Hmartawnphunga Sailo and Lalsawmliani Chawngthu, Lal Thanhawla completed his matriculation in 1958, his Intermediate in Arts in 1961, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1964.
Starting his career as a recorder in the office of inspector of schools, Thanhawla did a brief stint in the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank as an assistant. At a young age of 24, in 1966, the restless Mizo was drawn to the Mizo National Front (MNF), a militant outfit floated by Laldenga that sought resolution of the region’s problems through resort to armed conflict. As secretary of the MNF, he was subsequently arrested by the security forces and incarcerated in jails.
A year later in 1967, he was released from jail in Silchar in southern Assam, and joined the Congress party. He was soon appointed as the chief organiser of the Aizawl District Congress Committee.
Six years later, in 1973, Lal Thanhawla, a music lover and the founder president of the Mizo Journalists Association, was elected the state Congress president, the post he is still holding after 40 long years, a record.
Mizoram, one of the large districts of Assam, was accorded the status of a Union Territory in 1973, and in 1978 and 1979 Lal Thanhawla was elected to the state assembly. In 1984, under his leadership, the Congress party stormed to power and he became the party’s first chief minister.
When June 30, 1986, the most significant bi-partite peace accord was signed between the government of India led by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the separatist outfit MNF, he gave up his chief ministership following the request of the central leadership in favour of rebel supremo and MNF chief Laldenga.
In the first state assembly elections after mountainous Mizoram become a full-fledged, 23rd state in February 1987, he was elected the chief minister again and continued to serve in that post after being re-elected in the 1989 and 1993 polls.
Since 1978, Lal Thanhawla, a close friend of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has been elected to the state assembly for a record nine times from different assembly constituencies. His winning streak was, however, broken when he was defeated in the Serchhip constituency in the 1998 assembly polls.
The surprise defeat impelled the northeastern state’s five times chief minister to get himself elected from two assembly constituencies in central Mizoram since 2008.
Writer, scholar and historian Sekhar Datta said: “His critics may differ, his rivals for power may deny, but the incontrovertible fact remains that Lal Thanhawla personifies the Congress in Mizoram, having built up the party from scratch brick by brick.”
“This tiny northeastern state looking on the map of India like the hood of a cobra had a chequered and crisis-ridden history since the late ’50s when it was part of the composite state of Assam – designated as the Mizo district council,” Datta said.
He said that in the ’60s when the Congress party was little known to the Mizos and the region was in the throes of food crisis and other scarcities, an inspired and idealist youth Lal Thanhawla set in motion what then appeared to be an impossible task – of building a solid base for the Congress party ruling at the national level.
“Scaling high hills with a small bag containing a water bottle and the bare necessities, the sturdy, handsome young man commenced reaching the doorsteps of his brethren and impressing upon them the need for solidarity and integration with the larger and multicultural India,” said Datta, who studied the northeast politics very closely.
He said: “Perhaps Lal Thanhawla is the lone Congress leader in India to address Rajiv Gandhi by first name. He has been the living symbol and spirit of the Congress in Mizoram for over four decades.”
Lal Thanhawla is the father of a son and two daughters, and his wife Lal Riliani is a social activist and a strong crusader against use of tobacco products in the state and the northeast. (IANS)