MNF marks decisive win over Congress, BJP in Mizoram regional polls, bags 20 of 25 seats

Congress and BJP bagged just one seat each in the Lai Autonomous District Council elections, results of which were declared Tuesday.

BJP workers during campaigning for the Lai Autonomous District Council elections | Twitter: @MmhonlumoKikon

Aizawl: The Mizo National Front (MNF) has won 20 of 25 seats in regional elections to the Lai Autonomous District Council (LADC), leaving just one seat each for national parties the BJP and Congress while independents lapped up the remaining three.

The LADC election results, announced by the Mizoram’s State Election Commission Tuesday, brings a definite end to the five-year term of the outgoing council in which three different parties — the Congress, MNF and BJP — all claimed power at different times through orchestrating defections.

One member of the council even joined all three parties in those five years, first getting elected on a Congress ticket in 2015, then joining the BJP just a month or so ahead of polls, before finally throwing in his lot with the MNF.

The BJP appears to have emerged as more powerful than the Congress in the region’s political landscape. This is due to the fact that the Congress was able to contest in just 14 seats as compared to the BJP’s 17 candidates.

The Congress, despite having formed the regional government several times, also had a lower vote share than the BJP, which has never had an electoral presence in the LADC.

In all, the BJP cornered 20 per cent of the vote-share as against the Congress’ 14 per cent, which is lower than the total tally of the independents (15 per cent). Besides, several top regional Congress leaders had gone over to the BJP recently.

The landslide victory is also historic for the MNF because this is the first time the party has won an absolute majority in the LADC.

The MNF had campaigned aggressively on the plank that having a regional government aligned with the party in power at Aizawl bodes well for the autonomous district. All its ministers and most of its MLAs campaigned for the polls, with some top party leaders marking their attendance as well.

“The MNF believes the results show that the Lai people have confidence in the MNF government led by (Chief Minister) Zoramthanga,” the MNF said in a statement.

An unstable council

The Congress had won 16 of 25 seats in the last LADC elections, while the MNF won eight. An independent candidate had won the remaining seat.

But the council government was far from stable: in mid-2019, four Congress council members along with an independent who had until then supported the party, moved to form a joint legislature party along with eight MNF members, effectively beating the Congress to secure a majority by one. But the attempted coup got mired in legalities and the issue was dragged to the court.

Then in October 2020, after the last session of the district council had already been concluded, another coup took place — this time, seven of the remaining Congress members who had until then been helming the council, joined the BJP.

This set off political fireworks between the BJP and the MNF — partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as the ‘non-electoral’ North-East Democratic Alliance or NEDA — as the BJP members claimed to be in power even as MNF workers laid siege to the seat of the local government saying the BJP did not have the requisite numbers. A floor-test was never conducted since elections loomed.

Congress loses out but BJP fares no better

When candidates were announced for the 4 December polls, the lists showed the Congress had lost many of its regional leaders to the BJP and MNF.

Of the 17 BJP candidates, seven were former Congress council members. Of the MNF’s 25 candidates, three were formerly elected on Congress tickets.

But the results appear to show the BJP has less to offer by way of election victories to those entering its fold: of the seven former Congress council members who contested on a BJP ticket, only one won.

All three former Congress members who contested on an MNF ticket, however, retained their seats.

The BJP had put up an aggressive campaign in the run-up to the polls, flying in two Union Ministers, a national spokesperson and several MLAs from Tripura to echo its poll plank of ‘direct funding’ for the autonomous district councils. But its 17 candidates meant it had to win three-fourths of all the seats it contested to form a government, effectively relying on independents or even post-poll defections.

The Congress fared worse, putting up just 14 candidates, although party leaders claimed there were three “Independents for the Congress” in the fray.

MNF takes the polls

The MNF initially struggled with too many party leaders hoping for tickets — there were over a 100 competing to be among the 25 candidates. It eventually sorted out the candidate list and not only won 20 seats, but garnered 48 per cent of the total vote-share.

With the LADC in its kitty, the MNF now rules two of three autonomous district councils in Mizoram, which together account for five of the state’s 40 assembly seats.

Of the other two district councils, the Chakma ADC went to polls in 2018 but threw up a hung result, with the BJP and Congress forming a coalition government that was eventually overthrown less than a year later by the MNF, which secured the confidence of a majority of council members.

The Mara ADC is controlled by the BJP, although through defections — in June 2019, all 20 elected Congress council members joined the BJP, with the MNF remaining in the opposition.