SERCHHIP: As campaigning picks up momentum in Mizoram for the November 7 Assembly elections, the buzz is around the five-year-old party Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). It is hoping to upset the Mizo National Front (MNF) applecart by championing the cause of regionalism and promising a corruption-free government. It claimed that a wind for change is blowing.
Party’s chief ministerial candidate Lalduhoma, who is a former IPS officer, told this newspaper that people have tried and tested Congress and MNF and they will give ZPM a chance this time around. “Congress and MNF are our two rivals. We have had enough of them. People want change. The main agenda of this election is a non-MNF and non-Congress government, for which we are the only alternative,” he said.
The first MP in the country to be disqualified under the anti-defection law, he was attached to former PM Indira Gandhi as a security officer. “The MNF being a part of (BJP-led) North-East Democratic Alliance and National Democratic Alliance has lost its originality, sanctity and identity. It is no more a regional party. The ZPM is a regional party with a national outlook,” Lalduhoma said.
He rubbished Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s charge that ZPM is an “entry point” for BJP in Mizoram stating, “We will protect our identity and freedom and do not want to be dictated from Delhi.”