Mizoram Assembly election results | The race is between regional parties MNF and ZPM

Mizoram's Assembly election results on Dec 4 may surprise. 3 parties contesting all 40 seats: MNF, ZPM, Congress. MNF, ZPM upbeat; Congress hopes to upstage MNF. Polls on Nov 7 saw 80.43% turnout. MNF, ZPM confident; Congress accepts whatever seats won. In 2018, MNF won 26, ZPM 8, Congress 5. BJP hopes to increase tally on strength of MNF defectors. Results to decide fate of 174 candidates.

GUWAHATI

The exit polls have given the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), a constituent of the BJP-helmed National Democratic Alliance, an edge in Mizoram but the results of the Assembly election on December 4 may spring a few surprises.

The counting in Christian-majority Mizoram was scheduled for December 3 along with four other States. The Election Commission deferred it by a day following appeals by the political parties, church bodies, and social organisations to not hold the exercise on a Sunday, “a day for church services”.

The single-phase poll for the 40 Assembly seats in Mizoram on November 7 was believed to have been a more intense multi-cornered contest than in 2018. Three parties – the MNF, regional challenger Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), and the Congress – contested all 40 while the BJP fielded candidates in 23, down from 39 five years before.

The Congress, for the first time in more than four decades with former Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in command, hopes to upstage the MNF and an upbeat ZPM. Local pollsters, however, have billed it as a contest primarily between the MNF and the ZPM.

The results on December 4 would decide the fate of 174 candidates, including 16 women, based on votes cast by 80.43% of the State’s electorate.

Most candidates devoted their Sunday to church services and associated social activities. Chief Minister Zoramthanga, also the president of the MNF, said his party did all it could and “everything is in God’s hands now”.