Securing an absolute majority in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, the MNF on Tuesday returned to power after a decade, crushing the Congress and ousting it from power in the last Northeastern state it ruled.

The Mizo National Front (MNF), which got only five seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, secured 21 seats and was leading in five more while the ruling Congress won only five seats.

The Congress had taken power in the state in both 2008 and 2013 elections. It won 34 seats in the last election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made its entry into the Mizoram Assembly winning the Tuichawng seat.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla lost both the constituencies (Champhai South and Serchhip) he contested — to MNF’s T.J. Lalnuntluanga and Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) President Lalduhoma respectively.

MNF supremo and Chief Ministerial candidate Zoramthanga was elected for a fifth term from Aizawl East-I, defeating Independent candidate K. Sapdanga.

Buddha Dhan Chakma, a Minister in the Congress government, who just before the November 28 polls joined the BJP, won in Chakma tribal-dominated Tuichawng constituency defeating his MNF rival by 1,594 votes.

Five independents won and three others were leading.

Former IPS officer and security in-charge of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) chief Lalduhoma defeated outgoing Chief Minister Thanhawla in Serchhip by 410 votes. Lalduhoma quit the Congress two years ago before forming the ZPM.

Popular Aizawl Football Club (Aizawl FC) owner Robert Romawia Royte, who contested on MNF ticket from Aizawl East-II, also won.

The BJP had undertaken intense efforts to oust the Congress in Mizoram after forming governments on its own or in alliance in the others in the Northeast.

The MNF, a constituent of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), ruled Mizoram for 10 years — 1998-2003 and 2003-2008.

However, both the BJP and MNF fielded candidates separately in 40 and 39 seats respectively this time.

IANS

 Congress leader Kamal Nath on Tuesday said his party will form a government in Madhya Pradesh with a “full majority” in the 230-member Assembly.

“The party will form the government with full majority,” he told reporters here. His remarks came amid a sea-saw battle between the Congress and the ruling BJP.

According to Election Commission figures, the Congress was leading in 113 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled Madhya Pradesh for 15 years, in 106 seats even as officials counted millions of votes.

IANS

 Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s nephew T. Harish Rao created a record of sorts in the Telangana Assembly elections by winning the Siddipet seat by over 1.20 lakh votes.

Harish, who was Irrigation Minister in KCR’s cabinet, defeated his nearest rival Bhavani Marikanti of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) with a majority of 1,20,650 votes.

Associated with the TRS since it was floated by KCR in 2001, Harish has won this seat for the sixth consecutive time. He was first elected from Siddipet in the by-elections in 2004 after the seat was vacated by KCR. Since then, Harish has maintained a firm grip over the constituency in erstwhile Medak district.

The 46-year-old has increased his margin of victory with every election. In 2014, he was re-elected with a majority of over 95,000 votes, one of the highest in the state.

IANS

 Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday requested the farming community not to lose morale. He asserted that his coalition government was committed towards protecting their interest.

“Kumaraswamy has once again appealed to farmers that his government was committed to solving all the issues concerning them, and they should not lose morale for any reason,” the chief minister’s office said in a statement.

The chief minister, who met a delegation of farmers led by Kodihalli Chandrashekar at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, said, his government was making honest efforts to get sugarcane farmers’ their dues from sugar factories.

Sugarcane farmers in Belgavi have threatened to intensify their protest again demanding clearance of their pending arrears by sugar factories for the cane supplied and announcement of purchase price for sugarcane for the current season as had been done in neighboring Maharashtra.

Cane farmers had withdrawn their protest last month following assurances from the government to resolve their issues.

They have now resumed it during the session, alleging that the government had not kept its word.

Farmers need not worry about fall in prices from this, he said.

Meanwhile, a committee headed by Manoj Rajan, additional secretary (market reforms), cooperative department, formed to study ‘Israel model agriculture’, has submitted its report to the Chief Minister.

In the state budget, Mr Kumaraswamy earmarked Rs. 150 crore in the first phase for replicating the Israeli model of irrigation facility on 5,000 hectares of dry land in each of the parched districts of Kolar, Chitradurga, Koppal, and Gadag.”

The Karnataka High Court was on Monday told by the central government that the Lingayats were treated as Hindus since the first census in 1871 following which it disposed of pleas challenging the recommendations of a panel to grant religious minority status to the sect.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S Sujatha disposed of the petitions, saying the case did not merit any consideration after the additional solicitor general submitted a copy of the Centre’s letter to the Karnataka government in this regard.

The Karnataka government had written to the Centre on March 23 to grant separate religious minority status to the Lingayat sect with a copy of the panels recommendations.

However, the Ministry of Minority Affairs in its letter to the state government dated November 15 said, “The demand for separate religious status by Lingayat and Veerashaiva has been considered earlier also and it was observed that Lingayat has always been classified under Hindus ever since 1871 census, the first official census in India.”

“Those scheduled caste members professing Veerashaiva Lingayat sect would be bereft of all the benefits given to them once they are provided separate religion code other than Hindus,” it said.

“The Centre is misleading. The 1871 census report the Centre referred to for rejecting the proposal always treated Lingayats separate from Hindus,” Mr Jamdar said.

The Lingayat sect was founded by 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara, whose belief revolved around social justice, benevolence and piety instead of orthodox rituals and castism prevailing during his time.

PTI