Mizoram CM Zoramthanga resigns as MNF President after party's poll debacle

Aizawl, Dec 5 (IANS) Mizoram’s outgoing Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Tuesday resigned as Mizo National Front (MNF) President after the party suffered a humiliating defeat in the just concluded assembly polls at the hands of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM).

In his resignation letter sent to MNF Senior Vice-President and Deputy Chief Minister Tawnluia, the octogenarian tribal leader said that he took the moral responsibility as the head of the party for its electoral defeat.

"The MNF fails to win the state Assembly polls. In this regard, I take moral responsibility as party President. Considering that it is my obligation as the MNF chief, I do hereby tender resignation from the President's post and kindly request you to accept the same," he said in the letter.

Immediately after the declaration of results on Monday, Zoramthanga met Governor Hari Babu Kamabhampat and tendered his resignation as Chief Minister.

Zoramthanga lost his Aizawl East-1 seat where ZPM nominee Lalthansanga won by a margin of 2,101 votes.

Tawnluia also lost his Tuichang seat to ZPM’s W. Chhuanawma by a margin of 909 votes.

The militant outfit turned political party MNF got only 10 seats and 35.10 per cent vote in the November 7 elections, the results of which were declared on Monday. The ruling party secured 26 seats and 37.70 per cent vote in the 2018 Assembly polls.

The ZPM, formed in 2018, secured 27 seats and 37.86 per cent vote in the 40-member Mizoram assembly, to wrest power in the Christian-dominated state.

The MNF emerged from Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF) , a platform that protested the inaction of the Centre during the 1959 famine in Mizo people inhabited areas. The front, led by charismatic leader Laldenga, staged a militant uprising in 1966 and for several years carried out underground activities. Normalcy returned to Mizoram following the signing of Mizo peace accord in 1986 under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.