GUWAHATI: With the exit polls predicting a fractured mandate in Mizoram, it remains to be seen if the ruling Congress can break the jinx.
The jinx is that no political party was ever voted to power in Mizoram for three terms on the trot since its attainment of statehood in 1986. For the state’s principal opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF), the battle was to make a comeback to power after a gap of ten years.
Now that the exit polls have predicted a hung House, the focus is suddenly on the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), a group formed with some smaller regional parties. There is a perception that neither the Congress nor the MNF will be able to form the government without the support of the ZPM. This makes the post-election scenario interesting.
It was learnt that the Congress is mulling to go the distance to keep Lalduhoma, a retired IPS officer who had worked with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and heads the ZPM, in a good humour. As per the exit poll projections, the ZPM is likely to get around three to eight seats. Altogether 37 people had contested as Independent candidates under the ZPM’s banner. In the 40-member Mizoram House, a political party will need at least 21 seats to get simple majority.
A Congress insider told TNIE if the polls indeed throw up a hung House, the Congress may go to the extent of sacrificing the chief minister’s seat to the ZPM for the formation of a Congress-ZPM coalition government. The Congress is wary of a possible BJP-ZPM-MNF government in the state and it wants to keep the BJP out of power at any cost. Mizoram is the last Congress-ruled state in the Northeast. The BJP, in power in the remaining six states of the region, is on a mission to achieve a “Congress-mukt” Northeast. The party, however, has little base in Christian-majority Mizoram and is only trying to grow.
The BJP’s role will come into play only if no party gets simple majority. It does not matter for it whether or not it wins any seats. The BJP is an ally of the MNF in non-Congress conglomerate of political parties North East Democratic Alliance and it will try its best to keep the Congress out of power in Mizoram through political maneuvering. The Congress is wary of this after having learnt a lesson or two in Manipur and Meghalaya where it could not form the government despite emerging as the single largest party.
The Congress in Mizoram went to the polls banking heavily on the government’s flagship programme New Land Use Policy. Under this, farmers, who own agricultural land, are given a financial assistance of Rs.1 lakh per annum for a start-up in agriculture and allied sectors. The hugely popular scheme had helped the Congress grab 34 seats in the 2013 election. However, things that could go against the party this time around are anti-incumbency and the bad condition of the roads.
The MNF promised that if it is voted to power, it will improve the condition of the roads and enforce total prohibition. The party alleged that hundreds of youths had died due to liquor.