Space shrunk in Mizoram, Cong looks to ride anti-BJP plank, Manipur fallout for comeback

Steered by a new leader in the state after five decades, the Congress is now looking to regain lost ground in the Assembly polls scheduled for November 7.

The Congress’s key plank in the Christian-majority state is safeguarding it from the BJP’s Hindutva push, hoping that projecting itself as a bulwark against the saffron party would fuel its revival.

Like the ruling MNF led by CM Zoramthanga, the Congress is also eyeing the repercussions of the ongoing crisis in the neighbouring state of BJP-ruled Manipur for the Mizoram polls.

While the MNF has stepped up its attempts to capitalise on Mizo nationalism, the Congress is trying to frame Manipur as an example of the BJP’s alleged misgovernance and its bid to call the shots in the region along with its allies – both current and potential ones. Although the BJP is also taking on the MNF in the Mizoram polls, both are NDA allies at the central level.

Speaking to The Indian Express at his Aizawl home, Mizoram Congress president and its CM candidate, Lalsawta, 77, said, “It is dislike and fear of the BJP in Mizoram that we are counting on. When the Manipur crisis happened, it brought home the danger that the party poses to the Mizo people. The BJP is looming larger than ever.”

Mizos share an ethnic bond with the Kuki-Zomi community which has been in conflict with Meiteis in Manipur since early May.

“There are two levels at which the Manipur crisis plays out here. One is that the people feel the suffering of their brethren. The second is that the message from Manipur is how the BJP is capable of destroying social fabric of a Northeastern state,” said a senior central functionary of the Congress.

The BJP does not have a significant presence in Mizoram so far. But Lalsawta pointed to the MNF being a part of the NDA, saying “the ruling party is complicit in BJP’s activities”.

“The people are apprehensive of the BJP again having a hold in Mizoram as they do now through the MNF. Regional parties are pliable so there is a likelihood of the Zoram People’s Movement also allying with the BJP,” Lalsawta said.

Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had made the same pitch during his campaign in Mizoram earlier this month, referring to both the MNF and ZPM as “entry points for the RSS” into the state.

But the space for the party in the state is getting more cramped, where both the MNF and ZPM have been running vigorous campaigns.

The coming together of two recognised political parties (ZMP and MPC) and six other outfits, including civil society organisations, led to the formation of the ZPM in 2017 in the run-up to the 2018 polls.

Following its debacle in the 2018 polls, when its tally slided to just 5 from 34 seats in 2013 and its vote share dropped to 29.98% from 44.63%, leading to several defections and losses in autonomous council and civic body elections, the Congress effected a change in leadership.

In 2021, Lal Thanhawla took retirement from the Mizoram Congress leadership after having been its chief since 1973, in the course of which he remained the CM for five terms between 1998 and 2018.

The Congress leadership then appointed Lalsawta as the new state unit president. His image as an efficient finance minister in Lal Thanhawla government and a clean ex-civil servant is another factor which the party hopes could help reverse its fortunes.

Its rivals call the Congress a “spent force”, but a section of voters believe that this might be a “close election”.

“The BJP is marginal. But the other three parties are very close, I think. Each one is trying very hard to get ahead, but none of them are able to pull itself much ahead of the others right now,” said Felix Lalvenhima, a 24-year-old voter from Mamit.