Mizoram opts for regional parties as MNF emerges victorious

AIZAWL: Mizoram has voted for regional outfits, with the Mizo National Front (MNF) winning in 26 of the 40 assembly constituencies and the seven-party alliance of Zoram People Movement (ZPM) getting eight seats.

The Congress, which was in power, stands decimated, winning only five seats compared with 34 in 2013 when the MNF had got five. The BJP opened its account in the state, winning one.

In the MNF wave, chief minister Lal Thanhawla was defeated by TJ Lalnuntluanga by 856 votes in Champhai South. The CM also lost from the Serchhip constituency, which ZPM’s chief ministerial candidate, Lalduhoma, won by a margin of 410 votes.


Lifting of the liquor ban and bad condition of roads seem to have cost the Congress heavily. In Christian-dominated Mizoram, after 17 years of prohibitions, the Congress government in 2014 defied the powerful Presbyterian Church and organisations like the Young Mizo Association (YMA) by diluting the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act (MLTP), 1995. The first wine shop opened in Aizawl on March 16, 2015. Both the MNF and ZPM campaigned against the lifting of prohibition and promised to bring back the ban.

Agriculture minister KS Thanga of the Congress was defeated by MNF candidate F Lalnunmawia by a margin of 2,037 votes in Aizawl South-III seat.

BJP candidate and former minister Buddha Dhan Chakma won from Tuichawng. Chakma has left the Congress to join the BJP in the run up to the polls.

Former home minister R Lalzirliana and former minister Lalrinliana Sailo both left the Congress and contested the election on MNF tickets. Both have won.

The Congress failed in urban areas, but maintained some hold in South Mizoram. The BJP was hoping to corner Bru-dominated seats, but could not do so.