Aizawl: A few weeks after it was formed, the Mizo National Front (MNF)-Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) pre-poll alliance for the November 25 Mizoram assembly polls has landed in troubled waters where the ruling Congress is likely to fish in.
MNF and MPC, which reached into an electoral agreement on the basis of 32:8 seats on October 16, have run into a deadlock over seat sharing.
MNF party sources said the negotiations stopped after MPC president Lalhmangaiha Sailo, who is currently in Delhi, instructed his party leaders here to stop any deliberations with the MNF.
“Tough the pre-poll agreement is yet to be official declared as null and void, we are not likely to solve the situation agreeable to both sides,” an MNF insider said. The source did not rule out the possibility of MPC seeking electoral ties with the ruling Congress party.
“When the MPC sent us a letter offering electoral alliance, similar letter was sent to the Congress. This really upset the MNF leadership,” the source said.
MPC, earlier led by former chief minister Brig T Sailo and now by his son Lalhmangaiha Sailo, had forged pre-poll alliance with both the Congress and the MNF. In 1993, the MPC, then known as Mizoram Janata Dal (MJD) formed alliance with Congress and the Congress bagged 17 seats and the MJD seven. They formed a coalition government which did not last long.
MJD was later rechristened as MPC and it forged an alliance with the MNF in 1998 when the MNF bagged 22 seats and the MPC 11. The coalition government again did not last long. (UNI)
