Guwahati: Mizoram braces for a straight contest between ruling Congress and principal opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) when it goes to elections on Wednesday.
Both parties have fielded candidates in all 40 seats. Altogether 7,70,395 voters will decide the fate of 209 candidates, including 15 women.
There is a perception that the polls will throw up a fractured mandate which has never happened before in this Christian-majority state since its attainment of statehood in 1986.
The Congress and the MNF are the two key players although the BJP is also in the fray. The saffron party has never won a seat in the state and as such, it is not hoping to do wonders. Despite fielding candidates in 39 seats, it has set its sights on some seats in areas of the ethnic minorities such as the Brus and the Chakmas. The BJP will have a role to play only if it manages to win seats and no party gets a simple majority.
The Congress is worried, particularly about the post-poll scenario. The worry stems from experiences in Manipur and Meghalaya where the Congress could not form the government despite emerging as the single largest party due to the BJP’s political engineering post-poll.
The Congress in Mizoram feels that the BJP will try to do the same thing if it is a hung House. This was the sole reason why the Congress’s attack has been invariably on the BJP and not the MNF during campaigning. The Congress tried to make the voters into believing that the BJP was riding piggyback on the MNF to enter the state. MNF and BJP are allies in non-Congress conglomerate of political parties North East Democratic Alliance but both are going it alone in Mizoram elections.
Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla feels that money could play a key role in the BJP’s poll prospects. His Congress fears about horse-trading in the event of a hung Assembly.
For the Congress, things that could go against the party are anti-incumbency, bad roads and alleged corruption. The Congress is faced with a 1997 situation. In that election, the MNF had decimated the Congress which had managed to win just six seats.
This election, the Congress is banking heavily on Lal Thanhawla government’s flagship programme New Land Use Policy (NLUP). Under NLUP, farmers, who own land, are given a financial assistance of Rs.1 lakh annually for a start-up in agriculture and allied sectors. The hugely popular scheme had helped the Congress grab 34 seats in the last election.
MNF chief and two-time former Chief Minister Zoramthanga said the regional party was the only alternative to a “crumbling” Congress.
“There are only two main players in Mizoram – Congress and MNF. When the Congress is crumbling, there is no alternative to the voters other than the MNF. There’s a saying in Mizoram that the football game is played by the Congress and the MNF and the smaller political parties just collect the ball rolling down the field. Therefore, those on the fence and ball gatherers will never taste victory. Others are onlookers,” Zoramthanga said.
He predicted that the other political parties would get, at best, two-three seats. “Even then, I’m doubtful,” he asserted. The other political parties are some regional entities including Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) besides the BJP. The ZPM is likely to win some seats.