States » EastPosted at: Sep 24 2026 9:24PM


Two veterans quit Mizoram's ruling ZPM council amid leadership row

Aizawl, Sept 24 (UNI) Two veteran members of Mizoram's ruling Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), including former IAS officer Rin Sanga, have resigned from the party's Val Upa Council, its highest decision-making body, amid controversy over Chief Minister Lalduhoma taking over as party president.
Bualhranga, a former legislator and veteran of the Mizo National Front's underground movement, also resigned from the council on Thursday. In a lengthy resignation letter, he questioned the direction taken by the ZPM and criticised the recent amendment to its constitution that enabled the chief minister to simultaneously hold the party's top organisational post.
The ZPM had amended Article 21(1) of its constitution earlier this month, removing the restriction on the chief minister holding an elected office-bearer position in the party. Lalduhoma was subsequently appointed ZPM president on September 21.
The Val Upa Council, comprising senior and respected figures, was conceived as a body of elders to provide guidance to the party and its government. It was also entrusted with appointing the new ZPM office-bearers after the party decided against holding organisational elections.
Bualhranga said the council had once played an important role in shaping the movement but claimed that internal groupism had now weakened it. He also criticised the functioning of the government, saying ministries were being led by people who were good at smooth talk and explaining away mistakes but lacked the ability to organise and get things done effectively.
Recalling a gathering of ZPM MLAs and VUC members at Creative Building when the party was in Opposition, he said the person who is now the party's top leader had then promised that the ZPM would formulate a good system, present it to the people and win the next election.
Bualhranga said the party's system would have little meaning if its own leaders did not live by the standards they expected from others.
He also questioned the constitutional amendment allowing Lalduhoma to hold both the chief minister's office and the ZPM presidency. According to Bualhranga, concentrating political power in this manner could lead to what he described as "political intoxication".
He recalled that the ZPM had emerged partly out of opposition to what its leaders had described as the dangers of excessive political power and authoritarianism. He said he could not reconcile himself with being a leader in what he regarded as a departure from those principles.
Bualhranga, who joined the MNF underground movement in 1966 and remained underground for about six years before returning to the mainstream in pursuit of peace, later served as an MLA from Serchhip between 1979 and 1984. In his resignation letter, he referred to his refusal to claim medical and travel allowances or pension and said he had not sought government jobs for his children.
He said his age and hearing difficulties were not the reasons for his resignation.
Towards the end of the letter, Bualhranga drew a comparison between the rise of Adolf Hitler as a dictator and what he described as the present political course of Mizoram's leadership. He ended by asking the chairman of the Val Upa Council to think about the issues he had raised.
The resignation of Bualhranga and Rin Sanga comes days after Lalduhoma assumed the ZPM presidency following the constitutional amendment. The party has described the new arrangement as an organisational experiment; Lalduhoma has said the system can be changed if it does not work.
No details were immediately available on the reasons for Rin Sanga's resignation.
UNI ZS CDS
Tags: #Two veterans quit Mizoram's ruling ZPM council amid leadership row
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