Aizawl: As the campaign tempo for the by-election to the Chalfilh assembly seat in Mizoram on February 23 increased, all the political parties have been raising various issues including development, corruption, price rise and availability of essential commodities to woo the 17,054 electorate of the constituency.
The ruling Congress was banking on the popularity of its flagship programme, the New Land Use Policy (NLUP), designed to uplift the rural poor while eradicating the destructive slash and burn way of shifting cultivation called ‘Jhumming’ and thereby preserving the environment and the forest.
The state government claimed that more than 90,000 families have been assisted under the NLUP and majority of the beneficiaries were given around Rs One lakh per family.
The concept of advantage in supporting the party in power was likely to help the Congress to woo the voters who would also like to receive financial assistance through the NLUP.
However, the opposition parties, especially the Mizo National Front (MNF), came down heavily on the ruling party blaming the latter of ignoring the plight of the common man in the face of acute scarcity of essential commodities like rice, cooking gas, water and electricity.
Capitalising on the frequent load-shedding when thousands of students were facing important examinations, the opposition parties slammed the government for failure to deliver the goods, even the bare essentials to the people.
The MNF party also said that cooking gas scarcity was faced in Mizoram since the Congress came to power in the last part of 2008 while there was normal supply in other parts of the country.
The ruling party also came under fire from the opposition camp which alleged that the state government did not do anything to control price rise and also did not reduce sales tax on petroleum to ease the burden of the people as the petroleum companies increased the prices of petrol and diesel.
One important factor for all the political parties contesting the Chalfilh seat would be the behaviour of the Hmar community who comprised not less than one third of the total population in the constituency.
Whatever might be the issues dominating the election campaign, the political party or the candidate who could garner the support of the Hmars through the issues facing the community would have a better chance at the hustings. (PTI)