Who is Lalduhoma, the new CM of Mizoram?

AIZAWL: Lalduhoma of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) was sworn-in as the new chief minister of Mizoram on Friday (December 08).

Lalduhoma was administered the oath of office by Mizoram governor Dr Kari Babu K at the swearing-in ceremony.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhawan in Aizawl, Mizoram.

With this Lalduhoma has become the sixth chief minister of Mizoram.

Also read: Lalduhoma sworn-in as Mizoram CM

Early life of Lalduhoma

Lalduhoma was born on February 22, 1949 at Tualpui village in Champhai district of Mizoram.

Lalduhoma was born to a farmer, Vaisanga (L) and his wife Kaichhingi.

He is the youngest of four siblings.

He studied at Khawzawl elementary and middle schools, and completed matriculation from GM High School at Champhai.

He was appointed in 1972 as Principal Assistant at the Chief Minister's Office by Ch Chhunga, the first chief minister of Mizoram.

While working, he enrolled for an evening course of bachelor's degree and graduated with distinction from Gauhati University.

Career as an IPS officer

Following his graduation, he appeared for Indian civil services examinations at Shillong.

Qualifying the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1977, he served as a squad leader at Goa to crush delinquent hippies and smugglers.

His achievements were recognised by the national media.

He was transferred to serve as security in-charge of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at New Delhi in 1982.

He was given special promotion as deputy commissioner of police (DCP).

He was also secretary of the organising committee of the 1982 Asian Games, chaired by Rajiv Gandhi.

Political career

Lalduhoma resigned from police service to join the Congress party in 1984.

Indira Gandhi entrusted him to resolve the insurgency in Mizoram by negotiating Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Laldenga.

He visited Laldenga in London and persuaded him for peace talk with the government of India.

He also made Laldenga to make a message to the Mizo people that Congress was the instrumental party of peace.

As the elected chief minister Lal Thanhawla later reported, the recorded message made by Lalduhoma was the key in the success of Congress party in the 1984 Mizoram legislative assembly election.

Lalduhoma contested from Lunglei constituency, but lost.

Realising his political situation, Indira Gandhi asked the then Mizoram governor HS Dubey to make provision and privileges for Lalduhoma.

Laduhoma was immediately appointed as vice-chairman of Mizoram State Planning Board, at the rank of cabinet ministers.

In May 1984, Lalduhoma was elected as the president of the Mizoram unit of the Congress party.

His political goal focussed on peace talks and then arranged for Ladenga to return to India.

Laldenga and Indira Gandhi were scheduled to meet in the afternoon of October 31, but Gandhi was assassinated in that morning.

In the 1984 Lok Sabha election in December, Laduhoma was elected as Congress MP from Mizoram constituency.

However, feeling lack of action by the Congress to bring about peace in Mizoram, he withdrew membership from the party in 1986, which became a violation of the provision under the anti-defection law of 1985 to remain in legislatures.

The Lok Sabha Speaker disqualified him on November 24, 1988, and became the first MP to be disqualified under the anti-defection law in India for giving up membership of the party which he represented.

Lalduhoma later commented, saying: “I am proud of my first defection, of that decision... [because it was] for the cause of peace in my state, because the peace process was getting delayed.”

Later, Lalduhoma briefly joined MNF as advisor, but soon split from them to establish Mizo National Front (Nationalist), which was renamed Zoram Nationalist Party, in 1997.

As a ZNP candidate, he was elected to Mizoram Legislative Assembly from Ratu in the 2003 election.

In the 2018 election, he and his party joined a coalition party, the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM).

The party officially declared him the chief ministerial candidate.

The coalition party could not obtained recognition from the Election Commission of India as official party at the time, so he contested as an independent (not affiliated to any party) candidate.

He was elected in two constituencies, Aizawl West I and Serchhip, and chose to represent Serchhip, where he defeated the incumbent Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla by 410 votes.

He was elected as leader of the opposition bench of the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Mizoram Legislative Assembly.

He continued to serve as leader of ZPM, which became a registered political party in 2019.

In September 2020, 12 MLAs from the ruling party, Mizo National Front, submitted a representation to the Mizoram Legislative Assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo that Lalduhoma had violated the anti-defection law on the ground that he served as leader of ZPM party while being elected as an independent candidate.

According to the Anti-Defection Law (paragraph 2 clause 2), an independently elected member can be disqualified if he/she joins any party after election.

Lalduhoma was disappointed and said: “I contested as independent because the registration of my party ZPM was not complete... The law is to punish defectors who join another party but I have remained faithful to the ZPM... My case is unprecedented in India.”

On 27 November 2020, the Speaker officially disqualified him from the legislature.

He became the first MLA to be removed from the Mizoram Legislative Assembly, or any state legislature in India.

In a by-election of the Serchhip constituency on 17 April 2021, Lalduhoma reclaimed the legislative seat by defeating his major opponent Vanlalzawma of the MNF party by 3,310 votes.

In the 2023 Mizoram Legislative Assembly election, the ZPM was elected in a landslide, defeating the ruling MNF.