For 40 seats of state assembly polling begins in Mizoram

Guwahati: The voting for the 40-seat Mizoram Assembly started on Tuesday at 7 a.m., which will decide the fate of 174 candidates in the state.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, over 8.5 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 1,276 polling stations on Tuesday.

In this year’s assembly polls, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), main opposition party Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and Congress have fielded candidates for all the 40 seats.

Meanwhile, the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party have fielded 23 and four candidates, respectively, in addition to 27 independents already in the reckoning.

In the 2018 elections, the ruling MNF had bagged 26 seats with a vote share of 37.8% to emerge victorious.

Whereas, the Congress had secured five seats and the BJP won one seat.

This year, Chief Minister Zoramthanga is confident that the MNF will be returning to power on the strength of its performance and the initiative for ‘Zo unification’ after the ethnic violence in Manipur since May 3 made more than 11,000 Kuki-Zomi people take refuge in Mizoram.