The Congress on Tuesday made significant gains in the assembly elections, dealing a body blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The competition for the worst or most perilous 10 years has always been between the 1960s and the 1980s, points out Shekhar Gupta.
There are three things you never do in a small North East state: Undermine local leaders, divide and rule, push homogenisation, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Lone member of the Rajya Sabha from Mizoram Lalhming Liana on Friday said he would not support the United Progressive Alliance government when voting takes place in the upper house on Foreign Direct Investment in retail.
The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The North East is a sizeable success story for the Modi government politically and for the BJP electorally. It will be an unpleasant surprise if they choose to blow it, bowing to their basic, polarising instinct at any point, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress has already secured the required 21 seats to form the government in the 40-member House. The chief minister was defeated in his Champhai North seat and the MNF has so far manage to win only one seat.
The chief minister's statement came in the backdrop of tension between the two Northeastern states following alleged encroachment of land in Cachar district by the people of Mizoram.
The MNF returned to power in Mizoram by bagging 26 seats of the 40-member state legislature after a decade which saw the crumbling of the last Congress bastion in the north east.
The lone Lok Sabha member from Mizoram, Vanlalzawma of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), is likely to abstain from voting on the confidence motion in the Parliament, highly-placed sources in the MNF said today. Sources said that if Vanlalzawma's vote is to result in the ouster of the Congress-led UPA government, he would vote against the government, but if the UPA government is going to survive he would abstain.
Veteran Congress leader Lalthanhawla will take oath as the new chief minister of Mizoram on Thursday after leading the party to a landslide victory against the rival Mizo National Front (MNF) in the Assembly elections.
Former chief minister Lal Thanhawla beat his nearest rival, United Democratic Alliance nominee J Lalchhuana by a margin of 96 votes in South Tuipui and UDA candidate C Lalramzauva, an advocate, by 736 votes in Serchhip.
Former chief minister and state Congress chief Lal Thanhawla leads the list of the winners by bagging the South Tuipui seat in Lunglei district and Serchhip seat in Serchhip district, his home turf.
Regarded as the orange bowl of Mizoram, the prestigious Aizawl South III constituency will witness an interesting tussle between state home minister Tawnluia and number two in the cabinet and Congress nominee and former student leader K S Thanga.
The Congress today stormed to power in Mizoram bagging two-third majority with 28 seats in the 40-member assembly.
The return of the Congress to power is the change that has been long awaited. The anti-incumbency factor had stacked up against the MNF. For Pu Zoramthanga, who lost in his home constituency Champhai North and his party, the decade of smooth tongue wagging to save the party failed after they repeatedly did not deliver their promises.
The Election Commission has exonerated 12 legislators belonging to the ruling Mizo National Front on the issue of holding offices of profit.
A total of 142 candidates are in the fray for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly election as the last day of withdrawal of nomination papers passed on Monday, Joint Chief Electoral Officer H Lalengmawia said.
The Opposition alleged that the law and order situation in the state had been gradually deteriorating while a number of banned militant outfits of the northeast had made Mizoram a corridor for arm smuggling.
A powerful bomb blast damaged the office of ruling Mizo National Front in Aizawl on Tuesday evening. The police said the bomb, which went off in front of the office named 'Hnam Run', damaged its window panes and iron grills. Nobody was injured in the blast.
David Buhril on the perils that face a 'peaceful' Mizoram.
Birla, 57, has been MLA from Rajasthan thrice and MP twice.
Lalhmingliana, the lone Rajya Sabha member from the state, told PTI that MNF legislature party would arrange separate seats in both the houses of the parliament after the party informed its decision to the parliament.
The situation along the Mizoram-Assam border has been on the boil since June-end when Assam Police allegedly took control over an area known as 'Aitlang hnar' about 5 km from Vairengte, accusing the neighbouring state of encroaching on its territory.
With this, the Congress has lost its last foothold in the north-east.
'The fact that NSCN leaders are here in India for talks is a very positive development,' says Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga.
However,the exit polls got their forecast of a tight finish in Madhya Pradesh right.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like Republican Party of India-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad, Mizo National Front, National People's Party, Naga People's Front, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bodoland People's Front, which have one seat each, totalling seven seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Sunday were set to share the honours in the Lok Sabha and assembly bye-elections in 13 states.
The reverses for the BJP in the Hindi heartland threw wide open the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which until a few months ago appeared to be in the grip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party.
The oldest candidate contesting the election to the 40-member Mizoram assembly to be held on November 25 was the present Revenue Minister J. H. Rothuama (74) from Champhai North seat while the youngest candidate was Pazawna (27) of the BJP contesting from Mizoram-Tripura border Hachhek seat.
Mizo National Front, a constituent of the BJP-led NEDA said he was completely against the BJP as far as the ideology and other things are concerned.
A local Congress leader said that the alliance would not have any bearing in Delhi or in the coming election to the assembly in the north eastern state.
Former Speaker of state Assembly R Lalawia of Zoram Nationalist Party is the richest among the the 141 candidates who have filed nomination for the Mizoram polls on November 25.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is likely to contest the November 25 Assembly polls from Serchhip constituency from where he has won five times and also from Hrangturzo, Congress sources have said.
A poster boy of Congress in Mizoram, four-time Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is a stalwart in the state politics and has been in and out of power for the past three decades.
The MNF came to power in the state winning 26 of the 40 seats in the state assembly uprooting the Congress from its last bastion in the Northeast.
Despite a slow down in polling at midday due to the scorching heat, voter turnout was around 50 per cent till 2 pm on Friday for elections to the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat and by-poll to the Hrangturzo assembly seat.
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