Aizawl, Dec. 18: The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) has constituted a team to placate party workers who are angry over chief minister Zoramthanga choosing to vacate the Kolasib seat instead of Champhai, both of which he contested and won in the recent Assembly poll.
The MNF switched to damage-control mode immediately after the Assembly session ended yesterday and asked treasurer and cabinet minister R. Tlanghmingthanga to explain the situation to party members. He left for Kolasib, which the chief minister officially vacated on Tuesday, this morning.
Officer-bearers of all units of the ruling party had submitted their signatures to vice-president Tawnluia, protesting Zoramthanga?s decision to retain Champhai and pave the way for a bypoll in Kolasib.
MNF members in Kolasib want a minister as their representative, which is a tricky problem for the party because it cannot nominate a candidate from the existing council of ministers for the bypoll there. The only solution is for Zoramthanga to expand his ministry if the MNF wins the seat again. For the chief minister, choosing which seat to vacate was difficult. He could not have ignored Champhai because the constituency has been a fortress for him ever since he first forayed into electoral politics in 1987. Kolasib, too, has been an MNF stronghold.
Sources said what swung the balance was the narrow margin of the chief minister?s victory in Kolasib.
He garnered just 91 votes more than his second-placed rival from the Mizoram People?s Conference (MPC).
Pollsters had predicted a hung Assembly, but the MNF managed a one-seat majority because votes were split among the three principal Opposition parties.
There was a difference of only 0.69 per cent between the votes won by the MNF and the combined share of the MPC-Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) combine. It is believed that the ruling party managed to swing the balance because the anti-MNF votes were shared by the two allies in the 17 constituencies where they both fielded candidates.
The MPC and the ZNP leadership had reached an understanding only for 23 seats, which is why they won only five seats. The Congress fared better, winning 12 seats with a 27.02 per cent vote share. The party?s tally in the previous poll was six.