The Mizo National Front (MNF) may have unseated the Congress’ 10-year-long rule in Mizoram with promises of change, but one pattern that remains unchanged in the entire electoral process in the state, is the absence of a woman being elected to form the new Assembly.
Out of the 209 candidates who had contested the 2018 elections, which went to polls in a single-phase on 28 November, only 15 were women, PTI reported.
Interestingly, out of these 15 candidates, the BJP, which won only one seat in the elections, had fielded the highest number of women candidates – at six. The Mizo National Front, had not fielded a single woman candidate and said hadn’t found anyone “suitable enough”, reported PTI.
The Congress fielded two women candidates, one of which was Vanlalawmpuii Chawngthu, who is also the daughter of C Chawngkunga, the general secretary of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Commitee, and is also the second woman to become a minister in Mizoram, after it attained statehood in 1987.