Hung house in Lai Council polls as MNF leads with 8 seats; Congress 7, ZPM 6

Aizawl, Dec 9: The elections to the Lai Autonomous District Council (LADC) in Mizoram threw up a hung house on Tuesday, with the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) emerging as the single-largest party by winning eight of the 25 seats.

Congress won seven seats, while the ruling ZPM managed six. It is to be seen if the two parties now join hands for the formation of the executive body.

The BJP won two seats, and two Independent candidates were also declared elected, they said.

A party is required to win 13 seats to secure a majority in the district council. No party, except the ruling ZPM, contested all the seats. The MNF fielded candidates in 20 seats, the Congress in 14 and the BJP in 10.

Chief Executive Member (CEM) N Zangura of BJP lost to MNF's Premo Kanti by a margin of eight votes, while Chairman VL Hmuaka of MNF was defeated by Congress nominee C Ngunlianchunga by 348 votes.

Ngunlianchunga is the incumbent Congress MLA from the Lawngtlai West constituency.

The MNF and Congress had earlier signed an agreement that they would help one another in the elections and even in the formation of the executive body, but ended up fielding candidates against each other in a number of seats.

In the last LADC polls of 2020, the then ruling MNF won 20 seats, while the BJP and Congress bagged one each, and three Independent candidates were also elected.

The LADC was created in 1972 under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution for the Lai tribal people. It has 25 elected members and four nominated ones. The term of the present council will expire on December 18.

The elections were held on December 3, recording a voter turnout of nearly 84%.

PTI