AIZAWL: Ahead of the November 7 Assembly polls in Mizoram, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) received a setback on Wednesday after Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo resigned from his post and Assembly member-ship, stating that he would join the BJP and contest the upcoming elections on a saffron party ticket. Sailo submit-ted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker H. Biakzaua and requested that he accept it at the earliest.
After stepping down from the Speaker’s post, the 64-year-old MNF leader said that he would soon join the BJP and contest the November 7 Assembly polls on a saffron party ticket. “I will quit the MNF and join the BJP for the all-round development of Mizoram. As the BJP is now in power at the Centre, Mizoram needs support and funding from the Union government,” Sailo told the media. The ruling MNF had last month finalized candidates for all 40 Assembly seats in the state, denying tickets to Sailo, triggering his annoyance. The Congress-turned-MNF leader got elected to the Assembly four times from the Chalfilh constituency. BJP sources confirmed that Sailo will be induct-ed into the saffron party on Thursday. With this, eight MLAs, including two from MNF, have quit the Assembly in Mizoram this month. Five Independent MLAs resigned from the Assembly on Tuesday, in line with the technical formalities to contest the November 7 elections as nominees of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), the north-eastern state’s main opposition party. All five MLAs originally belonged to the ZPM but contested the 2018 Assem-bly polls as independents since the ZPM was not a registered political party at the time.
As the five Independent MLAs are now going to contest the Assembly elections as candidates of ZPM, which is now a registered party, they are liable to be disqualified if they do not resign, an Assembly official said. Their leader, Lalduhoma, was elected in a byepoll in 2021 as a ZPM candidate and does not require resigning, the official said, adding that the five legislators can now file nominations on ZPM tickets.
Earlier this month, Congress MLA K.T. Rokhaw and former minister and MNF MLA K. Beichhua resigned. Ro-khaw has already joined the MNF, while Beichhua has joined the BJP, and they will contest from Palak and Siaha Assembly constituencies, respectively. Beichhua, who had resigned from Chief Minister Zoramthanga’s ministry on December 13 last year, was expelled from the party by the MNF in January this year. The ZPM won eight seats in the 2018 Assembly polls but lost two seats in the subsequent byepolls while retaining the Serchhip seat in the 2021 bye election. (IANS)
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