The Mizoram unit of the BJP on Tuesday said it would go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly byelection.
Elections to Mizoram’s lone Lok Sabha seat as well as byelection to Aizawl West-I seat will be held in a single phase on April 11.
The bypoll was necessitated after Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) leader Lalduhoma vacated it to retain his Serchhip Assembly seat in the Assembly polls held in November last year.
State BJP president J.V. Hluna said party leaders will hold a meeting with national leaders in Guwahati on Thursday to discuss the strategy for the polls.
He said the BJP would contest both the Lok Sabha polls and the byelection would project Christian candidates for the polls.
“During the Thursday meeting, party leaders will finalise candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and byelection,” Hluna told a news conference here on Tuesday.
He said the BJP at the Centre has promised a cabinet berth if a party candidate is elected from Mizoram.
The academician-turned-politician said his party was ready to forge electoral alliance with like-minded parties. “We welcome all like-minded parties and people to join hands with the BJP. We appeal to the people to vote for the BJP candidate as there is chance of Mizoram having a cabinet minister at the Centre,” he said.
Hluna lambasted chief minister and Mizo National Front (MNF) president Zoramthanga for allegedly betraying the BJP.
The MNF is a part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (Neda).
Accusing Zoramthanga of being “a snake in the grass,” Hluna said Zoramthanga had asserted his allegiance to the BJP-led NDA government whenever he met the central leadership in New Delhi but he pretended to be a non-BJP ally in his home state.
“While the MNF, as an ally of the BJP, is supposed to include the party MLA in the ruling side and let him sit on treasury bench, the MNF sidelined the party MLA and made him sit on the Opposition bench,” he alleged.
The BJP opened its account in Mizoram by winning Tuichawng seat in the last Assembly polls held on November 28 last year.
The party’s vote share in the 2018 Assembly election was 8 per cent, a huge jump over the 0.37 per cent in 2013.
