The axed Congress vice president who had resigned as Mizoram home minister, R Lalzirliana, on Friday submitted his resignation as a legislator to the Mizoram Legislative Assembly secretary SR Zokhuma. The Tawi AC legislator for four consecutive terms is expected to join the Mizo National Front party.
R Lalzirliana was axed by the Mizoram PCC from his primary membership after he submitted resignation from the home minister’s post last month. The former Congress vice president was accused of showing interest in joining the MNF party. The disciplinary action committee of the Congress served him a show cause notice questioning his loyalty. Instead of replying to the show cause notice which he termed as baseless, R Lalzirliana tendered his resignation from the post of Mizoram home minister and was eventually axed by the party.
Former home minister and the politician who was a major initiator of the Mizoram government -Hmar Peoples Convention (D) peace treaty said that he would join the Mizo National Front.
“The MNF has a slogan – ‘For God and our country’. The Congress party has the habit of mentioning God but the MNF has been walking with God. I have made a decision that I too, should walk the talk, unlike the party who had sacked me,” R Lalzirliana said.
R Lalzirliana was the most trusted aide of chief minister Lal Thanhawla after he was elected from the then Saitual AC in 1998. He was the only Congress MLA elect who spoke the official language of Mizoram fluently. He was elected again in 2003, 2008 and 2013 during which he rose to prominence in the political hierarchy of the Mizoram PCC.
After his resignation he was approached by the Meghalaya based National People’s Party and was rumoured to form the Mizoram chapter of the late PA Sangma’s party. But in an interview with Northeast Now, R Lalzirliana said that at this stage it was difficult to form a new political party in Mizoram. However he has close ties with the Sangma brothers of Meghalaya.
The major opposition party in Mizoram, the MNF has already made it clear that if R Lalzirliana joins their party they will allot him the official MNF party’s Tawi AC candidature.
The Mizoram PCC has already set Rosiamngheta, a popular orator of the Congress and former councillor of the Aizawl Municipal Council as the official candidate of Tawi AC.