GUWAHATI: Mizoram’s principal opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) has stolen the thunder from the BJP in wiping off the Congress from the Northeast.
The BJP’s mission of playing the kingmaker and claiming the credit of defeating the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast – Mizoram –was trumped by the MNF. By winning just one seat, the BJP is unlikely to figure as a major coalition partner for Zoramthanga’s MNF which will form the government on its own. However, the lone seat helped the saffron party to make an entry into the state for the first time.
The BJP, which is in power in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and is a constituent in the coalition governments of Meghalaya and Nagaland, was on a mission for a “Congress-mukt” Northeast.
It was an issue of prestige as well as survival for the Congress when it went to elections in Mizoram after having tasted defeats in rest of the states of the region at the hands of the BJP and its allies in North East Democratic Alliance which is a conglomerate of non-Congress political parties, mostly regional parties.
There was a time when the Congress ruled the whole of Northeast. The slide for the party began in 2016 when the BJP had a landslide victory in Assam to oust Tarun Gogoi’s 15-year-old government, thereby opening the gateway to the Northeast. Thereafter, the BJP went on to win one state after another.
In the elections of Manipur and Meghalaya, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party but eventually failed to form the government. The reason was the BJP’s political maneuvering. The saffron party was smart enough to cobble up the numbers to form the government in Manipur. In Meghalaya, it was through similar political engineering that the BJP had helped the National People’s Party to form a coalition government.
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Meanwhile, it has been just hours that the election results in Mizoram were declared but the Congress has already identified the reasons behind defeat.
“We lost primarily for three reasons. First, it was anti-incumbency. People looked for a change. Secondly, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) had cut into the Congress votes. The ZPM was a new entrant in Mizoram’s poll fray and we underestimated them. The third reason was the MNF’s commitment that if it is voted to power, it will bring in a flagship programme for farmers which will be way better than the Congress government’s New Land Use Policy (NLUP). The MNF said they will give Rs.3 lakh to each beneficiary annually,” Congress spokesperson Maliana told The New Indian Express.
Under NLUP, the Congress gave Rs.1 lakh to the selected beneficiaries for a start-up in agriculture and allied sectors annually.
As the MNF went to the polls, it had also promised to the voters that if the party is voted to power, it will improve the state’s crumbling infrastructure, particularly the roads, and re-enforce prohibition. The MNF alleged hundreds of youths died after the Congress government had in 2014 partially lifted the ban on the sale and consumption of liquor.