Lalduhoma: Seasoned Tactician

THE ANALYSIS AROUND the poll results have been focused on the four larger states, unsurprisingly given their sizes and the likely impact they will have on next year’s General Election. But it is in the fifth and smallest state, Mizoram, whose politics have arguably made its most radical depar­ture from the past. Power in Mizoram, ever since its formation as a state in 1987, has always switched between two parties—Congress, under the lead­ership of Lal Thanhawla; and the Mizo National Front (MNF), the former insurgent group that signed the 1986 Mizoram Accord and joined the politi­cal mainstream, first under Laldenga and then his successor Zoramthanga. This election has brought to the fore a new political force, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), which won 27 of the state’s 40 Assembly seats, compre­hensively defeating MNF and decimating Congress.

And yet, even as it makes a departure from history, this election has brought to the fore a colourful figure from its recent past. Lalduhoma, ZPM’s 74-year-old leader and the state’s new chief minister-designate, was a key political figure in the state in the 1980s and was instrumental in bringing MNF’s leadership overground. The trajectory of Lalduhoma’s life has seen many sharp bends, from a career in the police service, to joining the political mainstream, and then finally managing to create a new political alternative in a state where few thought it possible.

A former IPS officer, Lalduhoma had earned a reputation as a tough cop during his stint in Goa, especially for going after the drug trade, which brought him to Delhi, where he got a number of plum positions, including serving as a secretary of the 1982 Asian Games’ organising committee and being made the security in-charge of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was during the time he served in Gandhi’s detail that the former prime minister is believed to have spotted his political acumen, and convinced him to quit the IPS and join Congress. His one key job then was to reach out to the MNF leadership and convince them to sign a peace accord.

This was 1984. The insurgency in Mizoram had gone on for years by then, and many in the MNF leadership were believed to be coming round to the idea of signing a peace deal. Lalduhoma is believed to have played a key role during this time, meeting Laldenga, then in exile in London, and convincing him to sign an accord, which eventually happened in 1986. Lalduhoma had also become an MP by then, winning the Lok Sabha seat of Mizoram in 1984. He was however rapidly becoming estranged with Congress, eventually becoming the first MP to be disqualified under the anti-defection law in 1988, when he quit the party. He has claimed this happened because the party’s then Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was dragging his feet on facilitating the peace accord, knowing that the party would have to vacate their seats as part of the deal, and Lalduhoma began to openly object to this.

Lalduhoma has been working towards creating a political entity distinct from the two dominating parties for several years now. He formed the Zoram Nationalist Party, and in 2018, he merged his party, along with a few other groups, to form a larger coalition group called the ZPM.

The hints of change underfoot in Mizo politics came in April this year. ZPM registered a number of spectacular wins then, from sweeping all the seats in a municipal council election in a town to repeating such a clean sweep in by-elections to a local council.

Zoramthanga’s MNF had made a strong electoral pitch around its efforts to help the larger ethnic Mizo community. Lalduhoma’s campaign however was built around how the MNF had lost its regional identity by joining the NDA and siding with the Centre on many issues. It presented itself as the one true regional party and a corruption-free alternative, and fielding a bunch of newbies, including local celebrities like the footballer Lalnghinglova Hmar, it successfully managed to overturn Mizoram’s politics.

How cohesively will this new party work? Will it continue to maintain its distance from BJP, as Lalduhoma has claimed, or will it, either at New Delhi’s behest or its own, seek to carve a closer relationship with BJP?

All these issues will need skilful handling, and there are few as seasoned as Lalduhoma to do that.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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