Chakma Council Polls Schedule Announced: Will There Be A Clear Verdict This Time?
This Monday the state Election Commission of Mizoram announced that the elections to the Chakma Autonomous District Council will be held on May 9. The results will be declared on May 11. In the last election in 2018, no party was able to gain a majority. The then main Opposition Mizo National Front emerged as the largest party by winning eight seats while Congress and BJP won six and five seats respectively. Later, the Congress tally increased to seven after the election to the countermanded Fultali seat was held. The results were a setback to the then-ruling Congress, which had swept the council by winning 17 seats out of 20 in the 2013 elections.
The headquarters of the council is located in Kamalanagar in the Lawngtlai district. The strength of the council is 24, out of which four seats are nominated by the Governor. Chakmas are Buddhists and are the largest religious minority in the state.
In a surprising move, Congress and BJP — the arch-rivals in national politics — decided to form the council together with the saffron party’s Shanti Jiban Chakma becoming the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the council — and this post-poll alliance was against the wishes of the state and central leadership of both the national parties. This arrangement didn’t last long and since then there have been changes in the government of the council five times. Last December, the Governor's rule was imposed in the council.
In the 2018 state assembly elections, the saffron party was able to open its account in the state by winning the Tuichawng constituency, the only assembly constituency falling under the CADC — and Buddha Dhan Chakma became the lone saffron legislator in the present state assembly. He earlier was in Congress and was also a former CEM of the CADC from 2013 to 2014. In the 2013 state elections, he was elected from the Tuichawng seat and was appointed as the only minority Chakma minister in the Lal Thanhawla-led Congress government.
In the Village Council polls of the CADC held last year, the ruling MNF emerged victorious in 65 Village Councils. The BJP, which had won seven Village Councils in 2015, secured a majority in 16 — a clear indication that the saffron party is a force to reckon with in the area. Congress, which once dominated the area, failed to secure a majority in a single Village Council. There are 86 Village Councils under CADC.
The MNF has already announced the candidates of all 20 constituencies. In a setback to the ruling party, Amit Kumar Chakma, a sitting MDC of MNF, joined the saffron party after being denied a ticket. In the CADC, the rise of the BJP has been at the cost of Congress and the fight for the council is expected to be mainly between MNF and BJP. More than the MNF, the fight for the CADC is very crucial for the saffron party, which is hoping for a majority in the council to gain momentum ahead of the state assembly polls later this year.
After Setback In Polls, CPM Changes Strategy Against TIPRA Motha
On Thursday, CPM held its state committee meeting to analyse the party’s performance in the recent assembly elections. After the meeting, a press conference was held where the state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury blamed royal scion Pradyot Debbarma’s TIPRA Motha for dividing the anti-BJP votes. The CPM has decided to campaign in the tribal belt by portraying the ruling BJP as an “anti-tribal” party and Motha as the “player of the BJP''.
Recently, there was a change in the president of the Gana Mukti Parishad, the party's tribal wing. Earlier Jitendra was the president. As he is the state party secretary and also the legislative party leader, Naresh Jamatia, a former state minister, was appointed as the president of GMP. The party has decided to continue its protest against the state government focusing on basic issues like employment, food shortage, roads, electricity, etc. Jitendra also said that the fight for recovering democracy would continue — an indication that the Left was eager to continue its partnership with Congress. The party also has decided to give space to new ones in the organisation.
This shows a change in the strategy of the Marxist party, which under Jitendra had adopted a soft strategy towards the Motha during the election campaign. After the poll setback, Jitendra’s strategy has come under attack. That the Motha divided the anti-BJP votes in the non-ST seats is true but the Left can’t only pass the blame on Motha for its own failure.
In the 2018 state elections, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura’s slogan of Tipraland took away the tribal votes from the Left. Later Motha’s slogan of Greater Tipraland swayed the tribal votes first in the 2021 Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council polls and then in the recently held assembly elections dealing a blow to the Left’s efforts to get back its lost base. Isn’t this a failure of the Left? The challenge for the party currently is to activate its various frontal organisations at the local level, particularly its women and tribal wings.
Dissent Brews Against Manipur CM Biren Singh
This Thursday, BJP MLA Paonam Brojen, who represents the Wangjing Tentha constituency, became the third party legislator to resign from an administrative post. He resigned from the post of chairman of the Manipur Development Society. On April 13, Heirok MLA Thokchom Radheshyam Singh resigned as the advisor of chief minister Biren Singh. This Monday, Karam Shyam representing the Langthabal constituency resigned from the post of chairman of the Manipur Tourism Corporation.
The three along with Uripok MLA Khwairakpam Rahgumani were in Delhi and met with Union minister of state for DONER BL Verma this week. Although the meeting was said to be related to the development of the state, this definitely created a buzz that these leaders were camping in Delhi to meet with the party's central leadership to complain against Biren Singh.
The resignations are clearly against the style of functioning of Biren Singh. This is not the first time. In the first Biren Singh government too, ministers belonging to the party and also from the allies had issues with him. Thokchom Radheshyam, and Karam Shyam, who was then an MLA of BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party, were removed from the cabinet. In June 2019 too, a section of MLAs from the saffron party camped in Delhi to change Biren Singh as the chief minister. It was then said that the group urging for leadership change was backed by Thongam Biswajit, a powerful minister in the first and the current BJP-led state government. His rivalry with Biren is an open secret.
Biren Singh’s government faces no threat as the BJP has a majority on its own. With the support of allies like the Nagaland People’s Front, National People’s Party and Kuki People’s Association, and Independents, the strength of the National Democratic Alliance stands at 54 out of 60. However, repeated revolts against Biren Singh are definitely going to harm his image. Importantly, there are many contenders for the chief minister's post like Thongam Biswajit, Govindas Konthoujam, a former state Congress president who joined the BJP in 2021 and Yumnam Khemchand Singh, who was the speaker of the assembly in the first saffron government. Among them, it is said that Biswajit has the backing of the RSS. It remains to be seen how Biren Singh boosts his own image affected by dissent. If he fails to do that, he is likely to face the same fate as Biplab Deb, who was removed by the central leadership as the chief minister of Tripura after repeated complaints by a section of the state leaders.
The author is a political commentator.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.]
Trending News
