Mizoram Polls: 15 women candidates in fray for assembly election

Aizawl, Nov. 18 (PTI): Only 15 candidates out of the over 200 in fray for the Mizoram Assembly elections are women even as the state has more female voters as compared to male.
The BJP, which has never won a seat in the state, has fielded the highest number of six women candidates.
Its state president J V Hluna said Mizo women were not traditionally interested in politics, but now they were participating in social activities and it has submitted a memoranda to all political parties to field women candidates.
The BJP is followed by the Zoram Thar, an Evangelist political party, which has fielded five women aspirants.
While the outgoing government’s minister Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu is fighting on a Congress ticket, two women are contesting for the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). The NCP has given ticket to only one woman.

The powerful Mizo National Front (MNF) has not fielded any woman candidate for the election.
MNF president Zoramthanga told PTI, “We fielded women candidates in 1987 and we had even a woman minister. But later in our women wing, we don’t have suitable candidate.”

In all, there are 201 candidates in the state which goes to poll on November 28 to elect members for the 40-member Assembly.
The assistant professor of the Regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences (RIPANS) R Lalawmpuii said that women in Mizoram had never thought about the issue seriously as it was their mindset that politics was for men only.
Lalawmpuii, however, said that given a chance she would take part in politics as she felt that young women should join politics.
First time voter and a college student R Lallawmawmi said “While voting, absence of women candidate will not cross my mind.

“In fact, I never thought about it. I’ll not take part in politics as I am not interested,” said the teenager, who is a member of the U-19 state cricket team and a sub-junior state badminton player.
“Every political party has a women’s front, but hardly any woman candidate,” Aizawl District Basketball Association general secretary Emanuel L Ralte said.
According to the final roll published on September 27 this year for the Assembly polls, Mizoram has a total voter of 7,68,181 persons, of which 3,74,496 are males and 3,93,685 females.

Barring Mamit district, the remaining seven districts of Kolasib, Aizawl, Champhai, Serchhip, Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Siaha have higher number of female voters than male electorate.

BJP seeks Reang refugees’ vote in polls
The BJP, which is determined to oust the Congress in Mizoram after forming governments on its own or in alliance in the seven north-eastern states, on Sunday urged the Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura to vote for the saffron party in the November 28 assembly polls.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders — Assam’s minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP’s Tripura Pradesh General Secretaries Pratima Bhowmik and Rajib Bhattacharjee — on Sunday addressed a gathering of Reang tribal refugees at Gachiram Para in northern Tripura adjoining Mizoram.

The leaders appealed to the immigrants to vote for the party candidates contesting Mizoram assembly polls.
Over 35,000 Reang tribal refugees, comprising 5,907 families, fled from Mizoram and have been staying in Tripura’s Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions for the past 21 years following ethnic tension after a Mizo forest official was killed in the neighbouring state.
Among the refugees, only a little over 11,232 immigrants are eligible to vote in the November 28 elections to constitute a new 40-member Assembly in the Congress-ruled Mizoram.

The BJP has put up 39 candidates this time while the party in the 2013 assembly polls had had fielded 17 candidates and secured only 0.37 per cent of the votes.
“If the BJP comes to power in Mizoram, all the problems of Reang and other tribals would be solved. The Congress did nothing for the development of the state and also for the minority tribals,” Assam’s minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the gathering.
He said that the four-partite agreement signed in Delhi on July 3 to resolve the refugee problems and to repatriate the tribals to Mizoram, was faulty and the BJP would do justice to the refugees if the party voted to power in the polls.

In the Mizoram elections, a multi-corner contest would be witnessed between the ruling Congress, BJP and Mizo National Front (MNF), a regional party, which ruled the state for two terms (1998-2003, and 2003-2008).
Though the MNF is a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), no pre-poll alliance was formed between the BJP and MNF.
Political experts predict that after the polls, the MNF might forge an alliance with the BJP to form the government.

BJP chief alleges CM Thanhawla wanted to join saffron party, Cong. calls it ‘joke’
Amid rising election campaign heat in Mizoram, the state’s BJP unit chief J V Hulna has claimed that Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla of Congress wanted to join the saffron party along with some other party MLAs before the poll process started, a claim dismissed by the ruling party leaders as a “joke”.
The Mizoram BJP president also claimed that most of the elected Congress MLAs will join his party after the poll results for the state are out on December 11. The elections are scheduled to be held on November 28 for 40 assembly states of the state, where the Congress has been in power since 2008.

The BJP has never won an assembly election in this small hill state with a population of just about 10 lakh people, including nearly 7.68 lakh voters, but it is seen by the saffron party as the “final frontier” in the North-East as it is in power in all other states of the region — either by winning polls or joining ruling alliances.
The BJP president Amit Shah recently declared that Mizoram, a Christian-majority state, will celebrate Christmas this December under the BJP rule.
“Lal Thanhawla himself, before this election, and his followers contacted the central leadership (of BJP) to merge the whole Congress in the state, just like the Arunachal Pradesh. They were in contact with them,” Hluna told PTI.

“They did not contact me, they contacted our leaders in Delhi. From them, I learnt that Lal Thanhawla was willing to join BJP,” he added.
In September 2016, the Congress lost its government in Arunachal Pradesh when 43 of its MLAs led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu defected wholesale and merged with the People’s Party of Arunachal, just two months after it had regained power following the Supreme Court’s judgement.

A senior leader of the principal opposition party in Mizoram, Mizo National Front (MNF), also made similar allegations against the chief minister and said that the deal fell through as the Congress leader’s “demands” were rejected by the BJP’s central leaders.
Thanhawla, a nine-time MLA, could not be contacted for his reactions despite repeated attempts, but a senior minister of his Cabinet termed the allegations as the “funniest jokes ever known”.

On condition of anonymity, an MNF leader, who is also contesting the Mizoram Assembly elections from a constituency in the capital city, claimed that Thanhawla had contacted a senior central leader of the BJP and had sought the Chief Minister’s post for his daughter and the Governor’s post for himself in return of joining the BJP with party MLAs.
“But these demands were rejected outright,” he said.
When asked about these claims, Hluna said: “These points, I don’t know. But I know that he (Thanhawla) had contacted (Home Minister) Rajnath Singh. And from them, I learnt Lal Thanhawla did not mind joining BJP. That’s the thing. But his demands, I do not know.”

Going a step further, the state BJP president asserted that most of the elected Congress MLAs after the results are declared will join the BJP as Thanhawla’s “ideology is to join central ruling party, whether Congress or BJP”.
“So after elections, all elected MLAs of Congress will join our party. They will merge with our party, if they really follow Lal Thanhawla’s teaching,” he said.
Asked further how can he be so sure about all the Congress MLAs joining the BJP, Hluna said: “May not all, but most of them… (will join) within this year.”

The former MLA said that for the benefit of the Mizo people, the ideology of any chief minister, whether he from the Congress or the MNF or the BJP, is to be with the ruling party at the Centre as Mizoram is a very poor and interior state.
While Thanhawla could not be contacted despite repeated attempts for his reaction on these allegations, the state’s Finance Minister Lalsawta vehemently dismissed these claims.

“Don’t make me laugh. Many inventions are there, but that wild allegation — that is the funniest allegation I have ever known,” he said.
On claims about Congress MLAs joining BJP post-result, the senior ruling party leader said: “I have confidence in my colleagues, my Congress candidates. That is the second funniest joke you have given me this afternoon. You will be digging your own political grave if you join BJP once you get elected as a Congress MLA.”

Lalsawta, however, said Mizoram would wants to have cordial and good relationships with the Centre like any other state.
Asked about a series of resignations by senior Congress leaders from the assembly and party in the last two months, the minister said there have been various reasons.

“They did not find a promising constituency for themselves. They had to migrate,” he said.
At least five Congress MLAs have resigned from the assembly and the party in the run-up to the polls and joined other parties.
Those having resigned include state’s home minister R Lalzirliana, former health minister Lalrinliana Sailo, former fisheries minister Buddha Dhan Chakma and MLA Hmingdailova Khiangte. Besides, Mizoram assembly speaker Hiphei resigned earlier this month to join the BJP.

With days left for the elections, Congress and the MNF are leaving no stones unturned to woo the voters, while BJP has launched a spirited campaign to get power in this strategically important North Eastern state sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh.