The BJP launched its poll campaign in Mizoram on Wednesday with its national president Amit Shah accusing the ruling Congress of “inefficiency and corruption”, hardselling the development plank and ruling out pre-poll alliance for the November 28 Assembly polls in the state.

State BJP president professor J.B. Hluna said Shah, addressing a massive gathering of party’s booth-level workers at R. Dengthuama Indoor Stadium in Aizawl, said development had been adversely affected in the state under a “corrupt” Congress regime and urged party workers to work hard to install a BJP government so that development gets priority. Hluna said the meeting will have a good impact on voters.

Shah ruled out any pre-poll alliance so that the party could “gauge” its own strength, said state BJP general secretary Vanlal Hmuaka. “We will contest all the 40 seats and the candidates’ list will be declared by the end of the month. There will be no pre-poll alliance but we are open to post-poll tie-up with non-Congress groups,” Hmuaka said.

In several tweets, Shah criticised the Congress, which has been in power in Mizoram since 2008. At present, Mizoram is the only state in the Northeast to have a Congress government. The Congress has lost Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura to BJP and its allies since 2016.

Shah tweeted: “Mizoram has lots of possibilities in hydro-power and tourism but the Congress govt has failed on all fronts. The inefficiency of the state govt can be seen in the fact that let alone promoting new businesses, their corruption led to closure of 3 existing PSUs”. In another tweet he said, “Glad to see the energy and enthusiasm of @BJP4Mizoram unit at the booth-level karyakarta sammelan in Aizawl. I am quite confident that BJP will win the forthcoming state election and Mizoram will soon see a corruption free, pro development government in the state”.

B.D. Chakma, a former minister who resigned from the Congress on Tuesday, and retired IPS officer Vanupa Zathang joined the party in the presence of Shah, who also held a core group meeting and inaugurated the state BJP office in Aizawl. The BJP, which drew a blank in the 2013 Assembly polls, is trying to reach out to the Chakma and Bru communities in Mizoram.

Shah had reached Guwahati last night and visited Kamakhya temple before leaving for Aizawl. On October 23, Mizoram election in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma and senior BJP leaders Ram Madhav and Ajay Jamwal will visit Aizawl for another meeting.