GUWAHATI
The Congress in Mizoram has defied the diktat of a students’ organisation to nominate a woman as the party’s candidate for the Lunglei South Assembly seat.
The constituency is in the south-central part of Mizoram, a landlocked State bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Soon after the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the Assembly elections in Mizoram and four other States, the influential Mizo Zirlai Pawl (Mizo Students’ Union) asked all the political parties not to field any woman married to a non-tribal.
The diktat was believed to have initially bothered Congress, which announced the list of 39 candidates on October 16. The Lunglei South constituency did not figure in this list.
That night, however, All India Congress Committee general secretary K.C. Venugopal announced the name of Meriam L. Hrangchal as the party’s candidate from Lunglei South.
Ms. Hrangchal, the daughter of Mizoram’s former Deputy Chief Minister Lalhmingthanga, is married to a Gurkha who sports a Mizo name and is an elder at the Baptist Church of Mizoram.
A Congress spokesperson told the Zoram Chronicle, a local news portal that the family of Ms. Hrangchal’s husband has been living in Mizoram for generations, much before Mizoram came into existence as a Union Territory in 1972.
“We nominated her because we wanted her as an eligible, qualified candidate. We have not yet had any reaction from anyone against her candidature,” State Congress president, Lalsawta told The Hindu on October 18.
Mr. Lalsawta is contesting the Aizawl West-III seat. His rivals are incumbent legislator V.L. Zaithanzama of the Zoram People’s Movement and former extremist-turned-engineer K. Lalsawmvela of the ruling Mizo National Front.
Congress has fielded two women, the other being former Minister Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu (Aizawl South-I constituency).
