The ninth Mizoram Assembly election results, 2023, mark both a continuity and a change in Mizoram’s electoral politics. Like in the past, this election not only leveraged a multiparty electoral contest within the framework of what Balveer Arora in a different context calls the ‘binodal’ system but also ensured that the Mizo National Front (MNF) lost after a term in power. In other words, this system perpetuates a system of a ‘revolving door’ wherein an alternate party has come to power in every one or two-election cycle since 1987. The impressive win by the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), a regionalist party formed in 2017 and registered with the Election Commission of India barely four years ago — it won 27 seats and an over 37% vote share — is a spectacular improvement from its tally of eight seats and a 22% vote share in 2018. This marks a break from the past.
An interesting break from the past
Unlike in the past, where the binodal electoral contest was always between a national party and regionalist parties, this election pivoted around a contest between two rival regionalist parties, i.e., the ZPM and the MNF. The Congress was reduced to a status of a bit player and managed to get just one seat out of the 40 seats being contested. Yet, the Congress’s ability to retain a 20.8% vote share suggests the fluid possibilities of a binodal electoral contest in the future. Again, unlike the past where Mizoram broadly follows the ‘small State syndrome’ where a similar party or a party in coalition with the party-in-power at the Centre is voted to power in a State because of its dependence on the Centre’s financial largesse, this election defies this and marks an experimental political choice by Mizo electorates by ensuring the ZPM’s victory. This presents an interesting electoral puzzle.
