Mizoram polls: Lone BJP legislator B Chakma to retire from active politics

Buddha Dhan Chakma, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) lone lawmaker in the 40-member Mizoram Legislative Assembly, has said that he will retire from active politics after the end of his current Assembly term.

Chakma stated that he wanted to concentrate on his family and other social duties as he has attained 50 years. He also said that he wanted to give opportunities to energetic youngsters. The ex-minister has emerged triumphant in four elections post-2008: twice as a legislator and twice as a Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) member.

Chakma has said that he will step down as president of the BJP Chakma district, though he has not ruled out leaving the BJP. "I have requested our leader to relieve me of my post. However, I will continue to remain in the party (BJP)," he said. Chakma, a doctor by profession, said that he would continue his work in education as well as his medical practice.

Assembly elections in the 40-member state Assembly are scheduled to take place later this year. 

He first forayed into politics in 2008, when he ran for the CADC from the Borapansury-II seat on a Congress ticket. After getting re-elected to the same position in 2013, Chakma successfully contested the assembly polls representing Congress in the following year.

The then-chief minister Lal Thanhawla appointed him the minister of fisheries and sericulture. To protest the denial of medical seats to Chakma students due to an agitation launched in 2017 by the state's apex student body, Chakma resigned as a state minister and exited Congress.

He ran in the 2018 legislative Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from the Tuichawng seat and became the first BJP party member to win a seat in the state assembly.

After five unsuccessful attempts since 1993, this was the saffron party's first win in Mizoram.