)
Campaigning for the election to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly on November 25 came to an end today with political parties making a last-minute bid to drum up support of the electorate.
A total of 691,000 voters, 350,000 of them women, would exercise their franchise on Monday to decide the fate of 142 candidates in the poll fray.
The main political parties in the fray are ruling Congress led by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, and three party- opposition alliance Mizoram Democratic Alliance (MDA) led by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga's Mizo National Front.
Apart from them, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Zoram Nationalist Party and Nationalist Congress Party are contesting in the state election.
Mizoram witnessed a peaceful poll campaign under the watchful eye of the powerful Presbyterian Church-controlled Mizoram People's Forum (MPF), an election watch agency. It had listed a set of dos and don'ts for political parties in the fray and kept a check on any kind of wrong doing by them.
The New Land Use policy (NLUP) of ruling Congress and the proposed Special Economic Development Program (SEPD) of MDA figured prominently during their campaign.
The opposition alliance had also raked up the issue of Mizo nationalism as one of its main planks for the election.
Unemployment and backwardness prevailing in the state were also major concerns raised by political parties.
