By Tirthankar Mitra
Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM)’s sweeping victory in Mizoram bins the proverbial belief that Indian politics has little space for the young gun. Of course, there are exceptions when mint-fresh political parties are known to end the regime of an established political outfit.
Indeed recent election results in this north eastern state announced on December 4 is a case in point. The young upstaged the entrenched catapulting itself to power. In its first electoral venture, ZPM did not come within a hailing distance of forming government. It is in governance in the second.
En route, ZPM edged out Mizo National Front (MNF) and reduced Congress and BJP to the status of also rans. As against ZPM winning 27 seats, the MNF bagged 10 while the BJP got two seats and the Congress one retaining a semblance of their presence.
Though Congress is a pale shadow of its old self in 2023, power has moved between it and MNF in earlier years. Anti-incumbency feelings have accumulated over the decades against the two outfits. Only eight seats were won by ZPM in 2018 Assembly elections. Now led by former IPS Lalduhoma who was also part of the body guard of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the new outfit is poised to form the government in this hilly small state.
Lalduhoma’s impressive backdrop notwithstanding, ZPM’s prospects earlier appeared bleak. But winning 11 seats in the municipal election of Lunglei, second largest town of Mizoram and following it up with winning all seven seats in the Zemabawk local council, polls, the ZPM announced its political arrival.
In the last five years, it grew from a loose coalition to a feasible alternative. Lalduhoma was disqualified in 2021 when he defected to ZPM from being an independent, but bounced back winning Serchhip by-election.
ZPM has several young candidates in its fold, including celebrities. These included Jeje Lalpektha, a young Indian player of international stature and Lalnhinglova Hmar, a young member of the All India Football Federation; both have defeated sitting ministers.
A conglomerate of six parties, ZPM has harnessed the feeling of anti-incumbency and emerged as the third front against the MNF and Congress. Presenting itself as a corruption-free alternative, it tore into the MNF for its unfulfilled promises.
The bull’s eye of ZPM’s target was the MNF’s promise of financial assistance of Rs 3 lakh to each family. With its ears to the ground, the ZPM has assured of giving Minimum Support Price to four locally produced crops namely, chilly, turmeric, broom grass and ginger.
Political outfits vie with each other in making electoral promises; if one promises the moon, the other assures of bettering it. But making a departure from this usual practice, the ZPM made no attempt to move away from MNF offering support to Chin refugees from Myanmar and the Kuki-Zomi refugees from Manipur.
The fact remains that both the groups are of the same ethnicity .Thereby it leaned heavily on Mizo nationalism. The ZPM may have presented itself as a fresh force, it underscored the fact it saw eye to eye with MNF on some of the issues. It sent a message to the electorate. MNF is not the sole preserve of Mizo nationalism.
It is a still not clear whether ZPM will join the anti-BJP INDIA bloc. But it has raised its voice within Mizoram and away from it in this region accusing MNF of losing its Mizo identity by being a part of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The BJP’s domination of politics at the Centre can force ZPM into a tightrope walk. The ZPM has to decide whether it will be an ally of the centre like other NE regional parties.. (IPA )
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