Mizoram is voting today in a single-phase election
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 7: While Mizoram votes today in a single-phase election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained a low key presence in the electioneering amid visible signs that the Christian-dominated state was largely becoming cold to the outreach of the saffron outfit. Manipur violence that broke out on March 3 has emerged as the polarising issue for the Mizoram Assembly election.
The incumbent Mizo National Front (MNF), while being part of NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance), tactfully distanced from the BJP. The MNF-led administration in the state had extended solidarity to the fleeing Kuki tribe people from Manipur who had to migrate following the violence in Manipur.
“Mizos are blood brothers of Kukis, and the Manipur violence issue emerged as the single most important issue in the poll. Incumbent Chief Minister Zoramthanga had suitably positioned the response of the state government to provide relief and shelter to the people from the Kuki tribe who had to be displaced after the Manipur violence. He, thus, is hoping to beat the anti-incumbency factor against him comfortably,” said Nirendra Deb, a Mizoram observer.
Unlike previous occasions when the BJP would unleash a high decibel election campaign in the Northeastern states, the saffron outfit was largely seen maintaining a low-key profile. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his scheduled election rally and in place he issued a video appeal recently. The BJP held one seat in the outgoing Assembly because of the party’s base among the Chakma refugees who have settled in Mizoram. The BJP had contested 39 Assembly seats in the 2018 state election, polling eight per cent vote share.
“The recent turn of event in Manipur has made the people wary of the BJP – something that was perhaps not the case earlier,” wrote Joy L K Pachuau, Professor of history at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, in in an article for The Indian Express
The BJP, it may be recalled, had aggressively campaign in Christian-dominated Nagaland also without success. With Manipur violence polarising the Mizoram election, Deb argued that the state poll may be a one-sided affair as Zoramthanga stood his ground in solidarity with the Kuki tribe. Pachuau too underlined the importance of the ethnicity in the election, while stressing that Mizoram elections overlook national issues as a trend of being an inward-looking state.
About The Author
