IANS/Aizawl
A day after suffering humiliating defeats in four states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, the Congress party retained power in Mizoram, sweeping 30 of the 40 constituencies and leaving the opposition badly bruised with barely six seats.
Results of four seats were awaited with counting still continuing.
Thousands of Congress supporters celebrated across the state, as election results gave some vigour to the partymen after the crushing electoral defeats in the four states.
The ruling Congress bagged 30 seats while the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), which led the three-party coalition Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA), secured only five seats.
Another MDA partner, Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC), managed only one seat.
The MNF, a militant outfit-turned political party, was in power in Mizoram for 10 years from 1998 to 2008. During the last assembly elections in 2008, the Congress had won 32 seats and the remaining seats were bagged by various local parties.
Congress leader and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, 71, who established the Congress base in the Christian-dominated state, was elected to the assembly for a record ninth time since 1978.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has little base in the bordering state, contested from 17 seats and lost in all. This is for the sixth time that the Congress has come to power in the northeastern state which has its borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“Under tight security, ballots were counted in eight district headquarters since 8am yesterday,” Mizoram joint chief electoral officer H Lalengmawia said.
Lal Thanhawla, also state Congress chief, who was contesting from two constituencies, won both the Serchhip and Hrangturzo seats (both in central Mizoram) defeating his respective MNF and Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) rivals.
He defeated MNF’s C Lalramzauva, a lawyer and a three-time former legislator, on the Serchhip seat by 734 votes while he retained the Hrangturzo seat beating MPC’s Lalthansanga by 1,628 votes.
“There was not a single instance of irregularities of our government. People voted for us seeing the success of our governance,” Lal Thanhawla told reporters after the win.
Opposition MDA’s chief ministerial candidate and MNF supremo Zoramthanga lost his East Tuipui seat (in eastern Mizoram) to the Congress’s T Sangkunga by 798 votes. This was his second consecutive defeat.
Stop infighting, Sonia urges party leaders
Shaken by the poor performance of the Congress in assembly polls in four states, party president Sonia Gandhi has asked senior leaders to stop infighting, take the government’s good work to the people and start preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, party sources said yesterday. Soon after the assembly poll results were announced on Sunday, the Congress chief said her party needed “deep introspection”. Sources said Gandhi called a meeting yesterday of general secretaries in charge to review the assembly results in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where the party performed badly. Gandhi asked them to stop infighting, explain social welfare policies and programmes of the central government to the people and start preparing for the next battle of general elections next year.