BJP meet on Mizoram Lok Sabha seat, Congress hunts for allies

AIZAWL: All eyes are trained on BJP as political parties in Mizoram gear up to fight for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state. The saffron party on Saturday announced that it would soon hold a meeting to finalize its strategy for the polls. It has two choices - either to support NDA ally Mizo National Front (MNF), the state's ruling party, or to go it alone.
Many said BJP might support MNF, considering the possibility of opposition parties throwing up a tough challenge this time compared to 2014 elsewhere in the country.In the recent assembly election, though, BJP and MNF had fought separately. State BJP president JV Hluna said, "The party's state unit will have a meeting with its national leadership soon to take a final decision."
This comes days after Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) made the going tough for Congress by announcing its decision to field its own candidate. The ZPM, the state's main opposition, has turned down Congress's proposal for an alliance. The Grand Old Party wants ZPM to support it in the Lok Sabha election, for which it will help the regional party fight MNF in the upcoming Aizawl West-I assembly byelection. In the November assembly election, Congress not only got dislodged from power after 10 years but also became the third largest party after MNF and ZPM. The Aizawl West-I byelection was necessitated after ZPM chief Lalduhoma vacated it to keep the Serchhip seat that he had won.
MNF vice-president R Tlanghmingthanga said his party would fight both the Lok Sabha poll and the byelection alone. He added, "We fought the assembly election alone and won it. We contested the Aizawl Municipal Corporation polls on our own strength and won it."
Another regional party, Zoram Thar, headed by Reverend Zaichhawna Hlawndo, has indicated that it will not contest the Lok Sabha polls though it will field a candidate in the byelection.