A day after announcing that former minister PC Zoram Sangliana will be its candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Mizoram, the Congress on Sunday nominated Lallianchhunga as the party nominee for the elections to the Upper House of Parliament.
He said that the party office bearers meeting on Saturday renamed its candidate due to unavoidable circumstances and nominated party spokesperson and media department chairman Lallianchhunga as the party contender for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.
Lallianchhunga, one of the finest leaders of state Congress, is an associate professor at the political science department in Mizoram University (MZU).
The 44-year-old leader is a well-known figure in the state for his academic excellence.
He topped Bachelor of Arts in political science under North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) in 2000 and stood second in Post-Graduate (MA-Political Science) examinations under the same university.
He was the drafting member of amendment to Mizoram Municipality Act, 2007 during 2009-2010 and member of the drafting committee of the Mizoram Local Government (Panchayati) Act, 2018.
He had also served as Mizoram state coordinator for Lokniti (Centre for Comparative Democracy), Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (Delhi) and also a member of New Land Use Policy (NLUP) implementing board during 2009-2013, among others.
Earlier on June 5, the Congress had projected former state’s art and culture and transport minister PC Zoram Sangliana as party contender for the lone Rajya Sabha seat.
Election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Mizoram will be held on June 19 simultaneously with nine other states, including three Northeastern states- Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) has fielded former party youth wing president K Vanlalvena while main opposition Zoraam People’s Movement (ZPM) nominated party general secretary B Lalchhanzova for the seat.
The ruling MNF has 27 members, ZPM-7, Congress –5 and BJP -1 in the present state assembly.