Mizoram’s Mandate 2023 was a first on two counts. The State’s electorate voted a party other than the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Congress to power for the first time in almost 40 years. It also elected more than one woman to the 40-member Assembly for the first time.
The first political party to rule Mizoram after it became a Union Territory in 1972 was the Mizo Union. The State had to wait for six years to get its first woman MLA – L. Thanmawii of the People’s Conference, which formed the government under Brigadier Thenphunga Sailo in 1978.
K. Thansiami of the People’s Conference became the second woman MLA in 1984, three years before the MNF’s Lalhlimpuii became the first woman Minister of the State. Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu became the second Minister in the Congress government headed by Lal Thanhawla in 2017.
