9 Dec :Senior Congress leader Lal Thanhawla is all set to be the next Chief Minister of the tiny state as his party has stormed into power in Mizoram after a 10-year gap.The Congress carved out its biggest victory in Mizoram after it attained statehood in 1987, bagging 32 seats out of 40 and handing over one of the worst defeats to the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF).
The Congress legislature party is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to formally elect 68-year-old Lal Thanhawla as their leader after the newly-elected MLAs reach the state capital from far-flung areas after the declaration of results.
This will be the fourth time that Lal Thanhawla will assume charge as Chief Minister of the state after having three previous terms at the helm of the party.
The party sources said after the legislators declare Lal Thanhawla as their leader, they would stake claim to form government before the state governor Lt Gen M M Lakhera and the swearing-in could be held a day after.
Immediately after his victory, an elated Lal Thanhawla attributed his party’s astounding success to the "rampant corruption" of the MNF government which had "frustrated the people".
"The people have voted for a change and the government will be development-oriented," he said, adding that his government would give top priority to uplift the poor and marginal agrarian families, especially in the rural areas.
Talking to media, Lal Thanhawla said that the MNF government had "neglected" the poor and the Congress would uplift the poor and downtrodden with the New Land Use Policy as envisaged in the party manifesto.All Central programmes would be fully implemented to ensure that the schemes reached the target population, he said.
Congress secures 38 pc vote share in Mizo poll
The Congress, which has bagged an absolute majority in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, has secured a vote share of 38 percent in the state.
The Mizo National Front despite suffering one of the worst-ever defeats in the December 2 election still managed to get a 32 per cent of the votes polled.
The party only managed to get three seats.An interesting feature of the election is the very narrow margin of victories, particularly by the Congress over its rivals. For instance, Lal Thanhawla defeated his nearest UDA rival J Lalchhuana by only 96 votes in South Tuipui seat.
The highest winning margin is in Tuichawng seat where former minister Nirupam Chakma of the Congress defeated MNF nominee R M Chakma by a margin of 3,112 votes.
While the lowest margin is in Aizawl South-I seat where UDA’s K Liantlinga defeated R Vanlalvena of the Congress by 28 votes.
While, the Maraland Democratic Front got one seat in the elections, the third political force, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), bagged four seats and got a vote share of 22 per cent.