Assembly election results 2018: After 5 unsuccessful attempts, BJP tastes first victory in Mizoram

After five unsuccessful attempts since 1993, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday managed to open its account in Mizoram with a win from Tuichawng seat.

BJP candidate Buddha Dhan Chakma, a rebel Congress MLA who had quit the party and joined the saffron outfit ahead of the election, secured 11,419 votes to beat Mizo National Front’s (MNF) Rasik Mohan Chakma by a margin of 1,594 votes.

Mizoram election results 2018 Live Updates

The party had fielded candidates in 39 of the total seats, but managed to secure only one win.

“The outcome is not what we had expected. But we have opened an account and got from zero to one. More importantly, voters threw out the corrupt Congress government,” Mizoram BJP president JV Hluna said.

Five years ago the party had fielded 17 candidates, but managed to secure only 2,139 votes, which was 0.37% of the total vote share. This time, however, the party got over 50,000 votes, accounting 8% of the total vote share.

At present, BJP is leading governments in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura and is part of the ruling coalition in Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Read: MNF returns to power as Congress loses last bastion in northeast

Mizo National Front, which won the polls with 26 seats, is part of both NDA at Centre and the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in the region.

“We are open to the possibility of supporting the MNF government. But they have won majority on their own and it is for them to take a call,” Hluna said.

MNF president and chief minister-in-waiting Zoramthanga said his party will decide on its association with NDA and NEDA at a later date.

J Doungel, professor of political science at the Mizoram University, said the BJP might try to paint it otherwise, “but it is clear that it won Tuichawng only because the former Congress MLA switched over to the party. There is no BJP upswing in Mizoram and NDA and NEDA has no influence in the state”.