Campaign for LS, Assembly polls in Mizoram ends

Canvassing for the election to the lone Lok Sabha seat and by-poll to the Hrangturzo Assembly constituency, to be held simultaneously on April 9, ended today in Congress-ruled Mizoram.

The Mizoram Lok Sabha seat will witness a triangular contest between the ruling Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, which is contesting in the state for the first time and the United Democratic Front an electoral alliance of eight opposition parties including the Mizo National Front, the main opposition party here.

Besides the MNF, the UDF constituents comprise the Zoram Nationalist party, the Mizoram People's Conference, the Maraland Democratic Front, the Hmar People's Conference, the Paite Tribal Council, the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party.

The contestants are: sitting Lok Sabha member CL Ruala of the Congress, UDF alliance nominee Robert Romawia Royte and Aam Aadmi Party's Michael Lalmanzuala.

Except for three elections, in 1977, 1980 and 1998, the ruling Congress have won all the Lok Sabha polls in the state since 1972.

The ruling Congress won the Mizoram Lok Sabha seat four times - in 1989, 1991, 1996 and 2009 out of ten times since 1972 when it became a union territory.

There has been no major election issue this time as the ruling Congress has appealed to the people to elect it as the same party in the state and Centre would be of benefit to Mizoram.

Royte, on the other hand, has been banking on predictions that the Congress-led UPA will be defeated and the NDA will return to power at the centre. The UDF has said that, Royte, if elected, will join the NDA.

The Mizoram Lok Sabha seat has 7,02,189 electorates which include 3,55,954 women voters outnumbering the 3,46,229 men.

There are 1,126 polling stations of which 385 polling stations, mainly in the urban areas, would use VVPAT system.

An additional eight companies of central para-military forces have been deployed apart from six state armed battalions and unarmed policemen.

The borders with Myanmar, Bangladesh and neighbouring Indian states have been sealed to prevent disruption of the polling by insurgents and unwanted elements from across the border.