New Delhi: Mizoram governor and former minister in the Narendra Modi government, V.K. Singh, has imposed governor’s rule in the state’s Chakma Autonomous District Council days after the ruling Zoram People’s Movement toppled the Bharatiya Janata Party from power in the Council.

A similar situation had occurred in Assam’s Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council in 2016, when the BJP grabbed power from the opposition Congress after its elected members had shifted allegiance to the party in power. The then Assam governor Banwarilal Purohit had at that time not only allowed the BJP to snatch power from the elected council but also extended its term by six months, at the end of which an election was held, which the ruling party won.

In Mizoram, this June 16, in a special session called by the Chakma Autonomous District Council chairman Lakkan Chakma, a no-confidence motion was moved by the ZPM, which is in power in the state, against the BJP. Its chief executive member Molin Kumar Chakma was voted out of power by his former party members who had jumped ship to the ZPM. Of the 17 elected members who had voted in the June 16 motion, 15 were rebels of the BJP who voted against the party with just one vote polled in its favour. The lone Mizo National Front member had abstained from voting. The voting had ensured the change of power from the BJP to the ZPM. 

Lakkan Chakma who had moved to ZPM from the BJP, then staked claim to form the new council. However, barely three weeks after that motion was successfully passed against the BJP, governor Singh decided to turn it down and instead extend his direct rule to the Council for the next six months, subject to its extension by the state assembly. 

This February 4, the BJP had for the first time in the state’s history, grabbed power in a CADC election. This was seen as a big win by the national party in the state. This is especially because BJP had failed to retain in the 2023 polls the single seat it had won in Chakma-dominated areas in the 2018 assembly elections. That 2018 win had been the maiden win of the BJP in the northeastern state.

On July 7, unlike what the the Assam governor did in 2016 that favoured the BJP, governor Singh used his powers to take control of the Council when the BJP lost power. As per local news reports, a notification issued by the state district council and minority affairs secretary L. Pachuau said that the “governor is of the firm opinion that the constant political instability is extremely detrimental to the CADC and is certainly not what is intended by the provision of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which envisages the effective administration of the tribal area for the good of the people.” 

The notification said that “opinion of the council of ministers was obtained on the matter and the governor is satisfied that the administration of the CADC can’t be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Sixth Schedule.”

Therefore, “the governor is pleased to assume to himself all functions of powers vested in or exercisable by the CADC,” the notification added. 

There are 10 autonomous district councils in the northeast spanning Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. 

In 2016, the BJP had grabbed power at Assam’s Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council in a similar fashion after the opposition Congress had emerged victorious in the elections. Tuliram Ronghkhang, who had won the Council's chief executive member post on a Congress ticket, shifted allegiance to the ruling BJP, thereby easing the way for the BJP to grab power at the Council through the backdoor. The then governor Purohit allowed Ronghkhang to form the next council after moving to the BJP, unlike the Mizoram governor Singh whose actions now ensure that the ZPM is unable to wrest power from the BJP at the Chakma Autonomous District Council.

In January 2017, the then Assam governor Purohit had also used an extraordinary power, this time to delay the subsequent elections at the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council. He had extended the term of the Council which had gone to the BJP from the Congress by six months without holding an election. After six months, an election was held in June 2017 where the BJP could win the KADC polls for the first time in the Council’s history – like it had won this February at the Chakma Autonomous District Council. 

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