New Delhi:
The Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) has crossed the majority mark in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly after taking a lead over the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) in the initial counts. Today the votes for the November 7 elections are being counted.
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The ZPM currently leads with 20 of the 40 seats, followed by the MNF with 12 seats. The Congress leads with six seats. The elections saw a three-way fight between the MNF, the ZPM and the Congress. The ZPM was created by merging six parties.
The MNF, ZPM and Congress contested 40 seats each, while the BJP fielded candidates for 13 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which contested the assembly elections in Mizoram for the first time, contested four seats. There were 17 independent candidates.
Some exit polls have predicted a clean sweep by the ZPM, but the majority indicated that the meeting was deadlocked with no party gaining a clear majority.
In the last parliamentary elections in 2018, the MNF won 26 seats and the ZPM eight seats, relegating the Congress that won five seats to third place. The BJP won one seat.
Zoramthanga's party has projected him as the “guardian of the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes”, although his rivals and other parties such as the BJP have accused him of corruption, failure to check rising unemployment and drug trafficking, and poor infrastructure.
Although the MNF is an ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Zoramthanga – citing kinship and family ties to Myanmar's Chin-Kuki tribes – has openly sheltered at least 40,000 refugees fleeing the junta- rule in the neighboring country. .
ZPM chief Lalduhoma said people are tired of MNF. “Mizoram has been under the MNF for a long time. And people really want change in the way they are governed. They want to end corruption,” Lalduhoma told NDTV during the election campaign.
Extensive arrangements have been made for the counting of votes. The counting would take place yesterday along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
However, the Election Commission postponed it until today following calls from political parties, churches and student organizations as Sunday is a day for prayers in the Christian-majority state.
In some seats with a smaller number of voters, only two rounds of counting will be held, but in most constituencies, five rounds will be held.
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