Zoramthanga And The State Of Mizoram; Who Represents Who?
The current Chief Minister of Mizoram, Zoramthanga is considered as one of the most prominent political figure of Mizoram. He is contesting from Aizwal East – 1, from where he formed the current Manipur National Front (MNF) government in 2018.
Zoramthanga is also the party chief of MNF. He won the Aizwal East – 1 constituency in 2018 by beating an independent candidate K Sapdanga with 2,504 votes. This is not the first time the current Chief Minister of Mizoram took up the chair of CM. From 1998 to 1008, he helmed Mizoram by representing Champhai constituency.
Zoramthanga and his party Mizoram National Party can never be removed from talks about Mizoram. It will not be wrong to suggest that the party is older than the state of Mizoram.
Zoramthanga has been fighting for Mizoram, even before Mizoram was identified as a full state. It was on February 20, 1987, Mizoram was declared a full state. But Zoramthanga started his battle for the state since 1965. The leader officially joined Mizo national Front while he was in last year of his college in 1965. When the party’s uprising started in 1966, he took part in the guerrilla movement and went underground to Bangladesh, then East Pakistan.
1966 is a notable year for the Mizoram and MNF. It was during 1966 the MNF started to revolt against the Indian government’s move to establish a sovereign nation state for the Mizo people. The year also bear witness of the “only instance of India carrying out an airstrike on its own civilian territory”.
The incident took place as a result of the revolt unleashed by MNF, which included “launching coordinated attacks on different parts of the Mizo district in Assam (Mizoram was earlier considered as Mizo district of Assam). Due to the attack of the rebellion, one of the earliest response of the government of India was the airstrikes carried out by the Indian Air Force.
Zoramthanga held the responsibility of Secretary of MNF, while Laldenga was President and later became the Vice President. The rebellion ended in 1986 with the signing of the Mizoram Peace Accord (which is remarked as the most and only peace agreement in India after its independence from British Empire). The Mizoram Peace Accord was an official peace agreement signed between the government of India and MNF.
After the agreement, MNF was offered to run a state government, with Laldenga as the Chief Minster. Zoramthanga was one of the Cabinet Minsters then. After declaring Mizoram as a state in February 1987– by which the MNF started to be identified as a political party – the first election for the state Legislative Assembly was held at the same month and MNF bagged the power with majority seats. Zoramthanga was elected from Champhai constituency and became Minster for Finance and Education.
When Laldenga died in 1990, Zoramthanga became the President of MNF. During the 1993 election, though Zoramthanga won from Champhai constituency, the party lost power to Congress. But in 1998, he led his party to victory and yield the Chief Minister position for the first time. The leader was re-elected as the Chief Minister in 2003.
But his rule was toppled by Congress once again in the 2008 assembly Election. In that defeat, Zoramthanga lost his candidature from Champhai constituency. In the next Assembly election, which was in 2013, Zoramthanga and MNF faced hefty defeat.
But on December 15, 2018, Zoramthanga once again rose to power, this time from Aizawl East -1 constituency. Now in 2023, Zoramthanga still stands strong for his state and its people hoping to yield the power for another round.
While the MNF chief has been at the front seat of political growth of his party and state, there were a few controversies that tailed him. The first corruption case against him came out in 2010. He was accused of allegedly supplying fencing materials from the Department of Agriculture to Aii Puk private farm. The case was dismissed in 2021 by Mizoram’s court of Special Judge by observing the absence of “sufficient evidence to prove” the said allegations.
Another notable accusation against the Mizoram Chief Minister is a murder case. In 2018, a newsletter published in ‘Congress Thlifim’, Zoramthanga was accused as the mastermind of the assassination of Chanchimawla, a moderator of Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod. The murder happened on 2007, while Zoramthanga was Chief Minister for second time.
