ZPM bags lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat

Aizawl: Mizoram’s ruling party Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) on Tuesday registered a historic win in the Lok Sabha polls defeating the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF).

This is the first Lok Sabha polls that has been won by the relatively young ZPM party since its inception in 2017.

Mizoram has only one Lok Sabha seat, which is reserved for scheduled tribes.

ZPM candidate Richard Vanlalhmangaiha defeated his nearest opponent K. Vanlalvena, who is also the sitting Rajya Sabha member of the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) by a margin of 68,288 votes, according to the poll results declared by the Election Commission on Tuesday.

Six candidates had contested the lone Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Richard secured 2,08,552 votes against 1,40,264 votes bagged by Vanlalvena.

Congress candidate Lalbiakzama stood at third securing 98,595 votes, followed by BJP candidate Vanlalhmuaka, who finished with 33,533 votes.

Independent candidate Lalhriatrenga Chhangte secured 4,706 votes, while lone woman candidate Rita Malsawmi of the People's Conference (PC) party came at the bottom bagging 3,793 votes.

Richard won majority votes in 37 assembly segments, MNF bagged the highest vote in one assembly constituency and BJP won majority votes in two linguistic minority-dominated assembly segments.

Thanking the people for his victory, Richard asserted that a strong wave in favour of the party helped him receive people's support and won the Lok Sabha elections in Mizoram.

He said that it was not his victory or the ZPM but the people's victory.

“Since the ZPM came to power in Mizoram in November last year, there has been a strong wave in favour of the party in the state. It is because of the party wave and its policies, I received massive support from the people,” he said.

He said he would neither join the NDA nor the Congress-led INDIA bloc.

Vanlalhmangaiha said people have strong faith in the leadership of Chief Minister Lalduhoma and the ZPM.

The ZPM leader said he will try to bring in several central projects to the state.

ZPM bagged 27 seats in the 40-member assembly polls held in November last year ousting incumbent Mizo National Front (MNF), which bagged 10 seats.

Outgoing Lok Sabha member C. Lalrosanga of MNF did not contest this time.

The last two Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and 2014 were won by Congress nominee C.L Ruala.

Officials said that counting, held under tight security arrangements, was peaceful.

At least 56.87 per cent of over 8.56 lakh voters had exercised their franchise in the Lok Sabha polls held on April 19.

Since 1977 when Mizoram voted in the Lok Sabha polls for the first time, ruling parties in the state had swept most of the polls except on two occasions in 1980 and 1998 where independent candidates backed by opposition groups won the polls.