The Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and Congress, which have formed alliance, on Thursday announced their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly by-election.
The names of the candidates were announced by ZPM general secretary K Sapdanga.
The parties have chosen two individuals having no political affiliations and termed the candidates as the ‘people’s candidates’.
Lalnghinglova Hmar, a journalist has been chosen as the Lok Sabha candidate.
Commonly referred to as an icon of the Mizo youth, Lalnghinglova has paved the way for the Mizo youth in the field of sports and is currently the honorary secretary of the Mizoram Football Association and executive member of the All India Football Federation.
He has represented the country in Socrrex 2014 in Manchester and also in the FIFA Congress in Behrain.
Lalnghinglova is said to be responsible for launching the Mizoram Premier League and also the first Futsal league in the country.
He is also the joint editor in-charge of Vanglaini Daily.
Lalnghinglova said, “There are lots things to be done in the state of Mizoram. Even though we had politicians in the past, this state is lagging behind in most of the areas, so I will try my level best to uplift the condition of my state in different areas.”
He also stressed on the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill saying, “This is not about party politics, we have a bigger issue to tackle. This is an opportunity for the Mizos to show the whole nation that we are united…I am totally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. If I am elected to the Parliament, I will do my level best to try to stop this Bill.”
The candidate for the Assembly by-poll for Aizawl West-I seat is Lalbuanga Sailo, who was serving as a government worker and retired in 2017 while holding the post of assistant director of Census.
Sailo, who has no affiliation to any political party earlier, said that he cannot refuse the opportunity to represent the people of the area in the Assembly.
Suggesting that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was his main motivation, Lalbuanga said “Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is a burning of the country and we have to stand against it.”
He said Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will be one of the top issues during his poll campaign.
When asked why he believes that he should win the seat, Sailo said, “In a democracy, the government should have an opposition party. Now the ruling party has 26 MLAs which is more than they require. But the opposition is the lifeline of the government that is why we need more opposition MLAs.”