After being trounced in four states, the Congress marched back to power in Mizoram for the second consecutive term
The Congress retained power by zooming past the halfway mark in the 40-member assembly by winning 27 seats and being ahead in at least one more constituency.
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Congress leader and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla (71) was elected to the state assembly for a record ninth time.
This is for the fifth time the Congress has come to power in the northeastern state of Mizoram.
“There was not a single instance of irregularities of our government. People voted us seeing the success of our government,” said Thanhawla, who is also the state Congress chief, said after the emphatic win.
Thanhawla established the Congress base in the tribal and Christian dominated state.
Thousands of Congress activists celebrated here and across the state as election results began to pour in.
According to election officials, Congress candidates won 27 seats while the opposition three-party Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA) led by the Mizo National Front (MNF) has won four seats and Mizoram People’s Conference was leading on one seat in this state of over one million people.
Thanhawla contested from two constituencies and won both Serchhip and Hrangturzo seats, defeating his nearest MNF and Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) rivals.
Thanhawla, who with this election has been elected to the state assembly for a record nine times since 1978, defeated his nearest MNF rival C Lalramzauva, a lawyer and a three-term former legislator, in Serchhip by a margin of 734 votes while he retained the Hrangturzo seat beating MPC opponent Lalthansanga by 1,628 votes.u00a0
81%
Number of voters in Mizoram who exercised their right to vote in the polls
9,806
The amount by which women voters outnumber men in Mizoram