With a high of 1 in Mizoram Assembly, laid low by anti-Christian image, BJP eyes non-Mizo voters

Mamit is also the only place in Mizoram where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a rally so far, planned for October 30, bypassing bigger towns such as Aizawl and Lunglei. The Mamit office is busy with preparations for the same, anxiously tracking a truck bringing decorations from Silchar in Assam that has been delayed for more than 12 hours due to bad roads and rain.

The BJP office in Mamit. (Express photo/Surkita Baruah)

Sailo, the party’s Mamit candidate, has just returned from a campaign tour of Dampa Rengpui, a Bru village. BJP sources say the party is counting on non-Mizos, such as the Brus and Chakmas, whom the Centre has provided many facilities, to back the party as it struggles to find acceptability among the Mizo Christians.

Nearly 87% of Mizoram’s population is Christian. Apart from sharing a common ethnic heritage with the Kuki-Zo tribes of Manipur, who are in conflict with the majority Meiteis in the state, the Mizos also share religious faith with them. Reports of churches being destroyed in the Manipur violence have put a strain on the already minuscule support for the BJP in Mizoram.

As an Aizawl-based worker of the BJP says, “The Mizo mindset is already set on the idea of the BJP being anti-Christian. But the minorities are not so closed off to the party, and that’s where there is a chance.”

According to the party’s calculation, the Mamit district has about 12,739 Mizo voters, and 8,020 Brus, 3,491 Chakmas, 161 Gorkhas and 19 Bengali voters. If it picks up enough votes among the non-Mizos, the BJP would be in with a fighting chance.

Apart from Mamit, the BJP is focusing on South Mizoram constituencies which have a large number of non-Mizo voters, such as Tuichawng, Palak and Siaha.

In fact, the BJP’s only legislator ever in the Mizoram Assembly, B D Chakma, was elected from Tuichawng in 2018. He has announced retirement from politics.

Of the total 39 candidates the BJP fielded, most finished third, fourth or fifth, barring its Tuichawng nominee who won, and its nominees in West Tuipui and Palak, who came second.

This time, the BJP has fielded only 23 candidates. “The focus is on areas where the party will grow. We are contesting in all the 14 seats with minority voters,” a senior party leader said.

2018 Mizoram Assembly polls vote share

Apart from minority voters, the BJP is counting on the anti-incumbency over decades of the bipolar fight in the state between the Congress and MNF – a trend of 10 years of one party in power followed by 10 years of the other.

A senior BJP leader interprets this as 10 years to a “regional alternative” (MNF), and 10 years to a “national alternative” (Congress). And adds: “The emergence of a new regional party, Zoram People’s Movement, is eating into the space of the MNF. The BJP is aiming to capture the space for a national party.”

But that national image also carries the whiff of aggressive Hindutva, which is alarming in the Christian-majority state. Some leaders admit tackling this even at a personal level. A young Mizo woman BJP worker says: “My family was very upset with me when I got associated with the party. Neighbours taunt, saying, ‘Oh, you are in the BJP? That means you won’t be going to Church anymore’.”

She says she was drawn to the party after returning to the state during the 2020 Covid lockdown after 10 years of working in Delhi. “I started noticing that so much work has been done in states, even in the Northeast, and there are so many schemes for women and the poor. I wanted the same thing here.”

The BJP is hoping that focusing on Central schemes will help override some of the wariness towards it. Vanlalhmuaka, the candidate from Dampa, says: “Just banking on minorities won’t be enough… In villages, we are telling people that the Central government is sending money to all the beneficiaries, but the people are not getting it. They are not benefiting from Ayushman Bharat, Jal Jeevan, Ujjwala etc because of the corruption in the state government.”

His criticism of the MNF government underlines the party’s complicated relationship with the ruling party. The two are technically allies as the regional party is a constituent of the BJP’s North-East Democratic Alliance as well as the NDA at the Centre. However, they insist they don’t work together in the state, and the BJP’s only MLA in the outgoing Assembly did not sit in the Treasury Benches.

In fact, the anti-Christian perception of the BJP has been played on by Chief Minister Zoramthanga himself. In a recent interview to BBC, he referred to “the burning of hundreds of churches in Manipur”, and said that “to have sympathy with the BJP at this time will be a big minus point for my party”.

He has also declared that there was no question of him sharing the stage with Modi at his October 30 rally.

A Mizoram BJP leader laughs off these tensions, adding: “It’s like a relationship of unrequited love… The MNF Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs are part of the Treasury Benches (in Parliament) but they left out our MLA, B D Chakma, in the state. That was not honorable.”