Battle lines drawn for Mizoram Congress Election

Battle lines have already been drawn for the organisational election of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) scheduled to be held on February 20 with straight contests in the election to the three elected office bearer posts – President, Vice President and Treasurer.

The incumbent state PCC chief Lalsawta has already announced his decision not to contest the coming party elections and anointed Lal Thanzara, the present Senior Vice President and younger brother of five-time Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla to contest the top post.

Recent meeting of the MPCC Executive Committee appointed Lal Thanzara, LalnunmawiaChuaungo and LalmalsawmaNghaka to contest the posts of President, Vice President and Treasurer respectively. Chuaungo and Nghaka will try to retain their present respective posts.

Detractors of Lalsawta are all set to field nominees to contest against the official candidates put up by the executive committee of the MPCC. Former Minister ZodintluangaRalte will contest the President’s post while the lone Congress legislator and former minister C. Ngunlianchunga and former MLA LalrindikaRalte will contest the posts of Vice President and Treasurer respectively, sources in the MPCC said.

Internal squabbles in the grand old party surfaced in the open when Ralte, then leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) resigned as Treasurer of the MPCC on April 21, 2023.

In his resignation letter, the four-time legislator and two-term minister had said the recent decisions of the MPCC chief (Lalsawta) has shaken and eroded the very foundation of the Congress party. “After you became the president of the MPCC in 2021, the spirit of collective responsibility and collective leadership as enshrined in the Constitution of the INC and MPCC has gone,” he had written to Lalsawta.

Lalsawta, two-time cabinet minister under the Lal Thanhawla regime during 2008-2013 and 2013-2018, took the reins of the party top job after the latter was forced to resign in the later part of 2021 as he was going to be 85 years of age when the state goes to poll in 2023.

Lal Thanhawla held the post of the state PCC chief since 1973 till his resignation was accepted by the then AICC chief Sonia Gandhi on December 4, 2021. With the end of Lal Thanhawla’s era and the absence of popular leadership, the state PCC seemed to have fallen into a political abyss.

The lugubrious performance of the MPCC in the election to the 40-member state legislative assembly held on November 7 last year added fuel to the internal discontentment with leaders opposed to Lalsawta’s leadership coming out in the open to challenge him and his coterie.

The Congress, which had won 5 seats in 2018 state assembly polls due to strong incumbency wave after being in power for two consecutive terms, managed to win only one seat last year while the BJP, which opened its first account in 2018 by winning one seat now has 2 legislators in the state assembly.

Dismal performance of the MPCC in the last assembly polls further triggered overt rebellion in the party resulting in the open opposition to defeat the official nominees in the coming party elections.