Congress pushes Mizoram tally to 34, bags one more seat

The Congress, which swept back to power in Mizoram with a landslide win, Thursday bagged one more seat, taking its tally in the 40-member assembly to 34 - two more than in the 2008 assembly polls.

The Congress emerged victorious in the Lawngtlai East constituency, where the result was withheld Monday because an Electronic Voting Machine was found defective during counting of votes cast at a polling station, where repoll was held Wednesday. The result was declared Thursday.

According to the Election Commission officials, Congress candidate H. Zothangliana retained his Lawngtlai East seat. He defeated Mizo National Front (MNF) candidate Vanupa Zathang by a margin of 273 votes.

While the ruling Congress, thus, bagged 34 seats in the 40-member house, the main opposition MNF, which led the three-party coalition Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA), secured only five seats.

Another MDA partner, Mizoram People's Conference (MPC), managed only one seat.

During the 2008 elections, the Congress won 32 seats, the MNF three and the Maraland Democratic Front one. The MPC and Zoram Nationalist Party got two seats each.

The Opposition alliance MDA's chief ministerial candidate and MNF supremo Zoramthanga, also two-term former chief minister, lost his East Tuipui seat (in eastern Mizoram) to the Congress's T. Sangkunga by 798 votes. This was his second successive defeat.

"Mizoram Governor Vakkom B. Purushothaman will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Thanhawla and his cabinet colleagues Saturday at 11 a.m. at Raj Bhavan," a senior official of the Mizoram Chief Minister's Office told IANS.

Newly elected Congress party legislators Wednesday met here and formally elected 71-year-old Thanhawla as the Congress Legislature Party leader.

This is the fifth time, including two consecutive terms, Thanhawla will become the chief minister in the mountainous state, which shares borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Thanhawla, who first became chief minister in 1984, won from two assembly seats -- Serchhip and Hrangturzo (both in central Mizoram).