© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
One evening last week, all 40 candidates fielded by the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) gathered at the Dawrpui community hall in Aizawl to take a collective oath. They promised to stay away from corruption if elected. With polling a week away, this new political formation is heading into this election with confidence, a set of fresh candidates, and support from some influential quarters.
On the stage at the oath-taking ceremony were a set of party “elders” such as former Chief Secretary Lalfal Zuala, retired IAS officer Rinsanga, and retired Mizoram University professor Thangchungnunga. These leaders, while lending their weight to the party, are not its electoral faces.
“Our party is supposed to be an alternative to the ‘grand old party’ system currently existing in Mizoram. So, there are many young faces too. Four of the candidates are below 40. Sixteen are aged 40 to 60. 50% of the candidates are below 50 years old,” said the party’s Aizawl West-I candidate T B C Lalvenchhunga, who is 41 years old.
Among its young candidates are some celebrities. The party’s candidate from Dampa is popular gospel singer Vanlalsailova, its South Tuipui candidate is former international footballer Jeje Lalpekhlua, and its Aizawl West-II candidate is All India Football Federation (AIFF) executive member Lalnghinglova Hmar, popularly known as Tetea Hmar.
“The party attracted me because it is a blank page. Since it is new and doesn’t have any established practices, it felt like the right party in which my ideas of good governance can be expressed,” said Hmar.
This sense of a fresh beginning that has attracted young candidates like him is exactly what the party is pitching to its voters, holding up the promise of a “new system” after more than three decades of rule by the Congress and the Mizo National Front (MNF) that have taken turns in power since the state was created in 1986.
Asked about the party’s primary plank, Lalvenchhunga said, “Technically speaking, it’s anti-incumbency. The same two parties have been in power for decades and in Mizo politics, nobody retires. People want a change from that and we are there to fill that gap.”
So far, the ZPM has been riding high on a string of successes. It started as a common platform of six small regional parties and civil society groups in 2017. It was yet to be recognised as a party during the last Assembly election. So, there were 38 Independent candidates in the fray backed by this common platform, of whom eight went on to become MLAs, making it the second-largest presence in the Assembly. In 2019, the ZPM became a recognised party and two years later it made an even stronger statement when its founder, and now chief ministerial candidate, Lalduhoma won the Serchhip Assembly by-election after he was disqualified from the Assembly for “defecting” to the ZPM after being elected as an Independent.
The ZPM’s next major victory was when it won all 11 seats in the municipal council of Lunglei, Mizoram’s second-largest town, this April. It also won all seven seats in by-elections to the Zemabawk local council the same month, a victory that the party has been claiming is more symbolic because the area comes under Chief Minister Zoramthanga’s Aizawl East I constituency.
This cemented the ZPM’s position as a viable third front in Mizoram politics after decades of bipolar contest. The primary pillar of the “new system” that the party promises is a Minimum Support Price for four local produces: ginger, turmeric, chilli, and broomgrass. In an interview with The Indian Express, Lalduhoma claimed that the party would introduce the “new system” through “administrative reforms, land reforms, economic reforms”.
Its political opponents downplay the party’s run of successes, calling it a “hotchpotch” of different entities grappling with pushes and pulls between the different parts that make up its whole. “It’s just a group which changed its name from something else a few years ago. They are disorganised, with discord between the different groups. If they don’t win this election, they will perish,” said MNF general secretary Harvey Lalrinliana.
While Congress workers and leaders make similar arguments, alleging that the ZPM, like the MNF, is likely to tie up with the BJP, Mizoram Congress president Lalsawta suggested he was not opposed to an alliance with the party. “It can be considered in the future, but never the MNF,” he said.
