GUWAHATI: Mizoram’s principal opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) stole 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 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 outfits.
There was a time when the Congress ruled the whole of Northeast. The slide for the party began in 2016 when the BJP posted 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 for Manipur and Meghalaya, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party but e failed to form the government.
Ex-rebel leader trounces Congress in its last N-E bastion
The Congress was ambushed in Mizoram, its last bastion in the Northeast, by Zoramthanga — a former rebel leader well-versed in the guerilla tactics. In the run-up to the elections, pollsters had given the Mizo National Front (MNF) a slight edge. But its chief Zoramthanga ensured a landslide for the party. The chief minister-in-waiting is known to be a master in the art of war, whether against armed opponents or political rivals.