AIZAWL: In an effort to revamp Mizoram Congress, state party president Lalsawta has made changes in the office bearers of Mizoram Congress by inducting former state chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo as vice-president.
Current party vice-president Lal Thanzara, former minister and younger brother of five-time Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla was appointed as senior vice-president, a Congress leader said.
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Reshuffle of the Mizoram Congress was approved in the meeting of the MPCC executive committee on Friday, he said.
Induction of Chuaungo as vice-president was seen as an attempt to revamp the Mizoram Congress ahead of the state assembly elections as he had earned sympathies of the general public when he was removed as state’s home principal secretary a few weeks before the 2018 Mizoram assembly polls.
Chuaungo, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of 1987 batch, was removed and transferred to Delhi following a complaint filed by the then state chief electoral officer (CEO) SB Shashank that the former had interfered in the poll process.
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SB Shashank had reportedly sought the deployment of additional central armed police forces which Chuaungo had allegedly objected to.
The former CEO had also accused Chuaungo of objecting to the use of identification slips of Bru voters for any other purpose except repatriation.
The removal of Chuaungo and the alleged ‘pro Bru’ stance by Shashank had irked the state government, political parties and civil societies.
On November 6 and 7, 2018 a state-wide protest was staged by NGO Coordination Committee, a conglomerate of major civil societies and student organizations, which compelled the Election Commission of India (ECI) to remove Shashank.
When Chuaungo returned to the state to assume the CS office in February 2019, he was accorded a hero welcome.
Chuaungo retired as the state chief secretary in October 2021 after which he was appointed as chief information commissioner (CIC).
He recently quit the CIC post to join politics.
Subsequently, he joined Congress on June 20 to strengthen the party ahead of the assembly polls, which are due later this year.
Still weighed down by anti-incumbency wave and the recent internal squabble, the MPCC could not surge its influence to take on the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) as of now.
In the present 40-member Mizoram assembly, Congress has only 5 members, MNF -26, Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) -6 and BJP has one member.
Dr. K. Beichhua, who resigned as a minister in December last year and later expelled from the MNF said he would join the BJP before the assembly elections.