Aizawl, Dec. 15: The Mizo National Front heaved a sigh of relief as Mara Democratic Front president and legislator P.P. Thawlla was sworn in by governor A.R. Kohli this afternoon as the sixth minister of state in Zoramthanga?s ministry.
The MNF desperately needed another MLA to consolidate its simple majority in the Mizoram House. Thawlla, till Sunday noon, had said he would sit as an Independent MLA until and unless the political affairs committee of his party, the MDF, decided otherwise.
Driving a hard bargain, a deal was reached late on Sunday night according to which the MDF will support the MNF ministry if its president was made a minister. The agreement also said an MDF-MNF coalition would rule the Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC), with the post of chief executive officer of the council going to the MDF.
A new council, with a total of 14 MDF and MNF members, is now ready to come up there. The MNF, short of an MLA to garner a simple majority of 21 in the Assembly, did not have much choice but agree to the demands of the MDF. None of the Opposition members attended the swearing-in of the new minister today as the MDF legislator had been supported by the MPC-ZNP alliance during the election. Sources said bureaucrats and state government officers from the Mara tribe, sympathising with the MNF, had pressured the MDF president into forming an alliance with the MNF.