AIZAWL:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of forming the executive body in Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC) in southern Mizoram on its own, even though political parties failed to reach an agreement on formation of the next government.
With no clear majority, the BJP has been holding negotiations with both the MNF and the Congress for an alliance, and as per sources in Siaha town, the district headquarters of southernmost Mizoram’s Siaha district and the seat of the MADC, the MNF and the Congress have also been in talks.
But now the BJP legislature party has elected M Laikaw, president of the Mara district BJP, as the leader who is tipped to be the next chief executive member (CEM) with the present CEM N Zakhai as chairman of the council.
Sources in the BJP said that the party will first stake claim to form the government in front of the state governor in the MADC, and expressed the hope that some MDCs from other political parties would support the government when the BJP has to prove its majority in the floor of the council.
Former minister and Mara district congress committee (MDCC) chief S Hiato, over the phone from Siaha, said that the talks between the BJP and his party have been over without any agreement.
“I hope that there will be positive developments by early Friday as the deadline for formation of the government expires,” Hiato said.
He said that the elected BJP members of district council (MDCs) were all his “boys” earlier, but the BJP leadership in Delhi did not want to have anything to do with the Congress as the BJP and the Congress are main opponents in national politics. He said that he did not want to join hands with the MNF and would never agree to forge an alliance with the party in power in the state.
Reports said that while the BJP and the Congress have agreed in principle to forge an alliance to form the next government, power sharing has been the stumbling block in finalising the negotiations.
In the recently concluded polls in the 25-member Council, BJP bagged 12 seats, one seat short of the magic number, while Mizo National Front (MNF), which governs the state, won nine seats and Congress had to content with four seats. The BJP had been keen to forge an alliance with the Congress, but the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee, however, had ruled out a post-poll alliance with any party on May 10.
Mizoram’s state election commissioner (SEC) Laima Chozah said that as per the schedule of the elections to the 25-member MADC, the government formation has to be completed by Friday, May 13.
“If a government cannot be formed, the matter would be left to the state government and the state governor would appoint an administrator to look after the affairs of the MADC,” he said, adding that the administrator would be the deputy commissioner of the southernmost Mizoram’s Siaha district.
The newly-elected 25 MDCs were administered oath on Thursday by President District Council Court and Recorder K Vanlalliana and the oath-taking ceremony was presided over by Deputy Secretary of the legislative department Derick Salai Solo.
State district council and minority affairs secretary Maria CT Zuali on May 12 appointed K Hrahmo, elected MDC from Chakhei MADC constituency, as protem chairman to preside over the first meeting of the 12th MADC on May 13.