New Mizoram Assembly to have no woman MLA as all 15 female legislators were defeated in 28 November polls

Aizawl: The Mizoram Assembly will not have a single woman legislator as all the 15 female candidates lost in the 28 November election in the state where women outnumber men in the voters’ list. Of the total 209 candidates, 15 were women — the highest ever to have contested the assembly polls in the state so far. Of the 7,07,395 electorates, around 6,20,332 voters had cast their votes on November 28, of whom 3,20,401 were women. [caption id=“attachment_5635121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Political analysts attributed the failure of women to win the assembly election to the Mizo society being strictly patriarchal and the major political party’s refusal to field women candidates. The Mizo National Front (MNF), which bagged 26 seats in the 40-member House, had not fielded a single woman candidate. The BJP, which won only one seat, had put up the maximum number of women candidates at six. The ‘Zoramthar’ a religious-based group had fielded five women candidates. The People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) and the National People’s Party (NPP) also did not field any woman candidate. State Cooperation minister Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu, who was the sole woman candidate to have been fielded by the Congress from the Hrangturzo seat, could not taste success. The Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) had put up two women nominees while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress fielded one woman candidate each. The 15 women candidates together secured only 14,482 votes with Lalrinpuii of the ZPM, who contested from Lunglei South, getting 3,991 votes - the highest among the women candidates. The second highest vote scoring woman candidate was Chawngthu, who bagged 3,815 votes in Hrangturzo seat. In the 2013 election, there were six women candidates and no woman was elected to the state assembly. Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu contested the bypoll to the Hrangturzo seat in 2014 and won it after it was vacated by Lal Thanhawla as he was elected from two seats. Last year, Chawngthu was appointed as the state Cooperation minister.