(Top) Mizo National Front supporters hold out a party flag in Aizawl and (below) pedestrians walk past a Congress banner in the state capital. (AFP)

Poll-gazers have riveted their attention on the quiet rural constituency of Tuirial, ringed by the wide expanse of rolling blue hills in north Mizoram.

Elections apart, the constituency has hogged the limelight for a couple of reasons.

The landmark Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School of the Indian Army at Vairengte is located in this constituency. Besides, mainstream Mizos and a minority Christian tribal community — Hmars — vie for economic advancement.

Named after Tuirial, the river flowing down to adjoining Cachar district in south Assam, the constituency’s importance lies in the fact that the trends of the campaign for this seat invariably tend to radiate to the nearby constituencies.

This poll battleground has a total electorate of about 14,535 voters. While the women outnumber their male counterparts in Mizoram, this seat is an exception.

In a four-cornered tussle, the main contest will be between the aspirant from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Sailothanga Sailo, a trader, and his adversary from the Congress, Hmingdailova Khiangte, a retired IPS officer. The MNF candidate, Lallinkima, appears to be bringing up the rear.

Khiangte is piling pressure on Sailo by raking up the stench of corruption in the MNF regime to garner votes. The rural masses still value the virtues of rectitude and honesty.

At the joint election meetings, an innovation of the Church-dominated Mizo People’s Forum, a poll watchdog, the parties are digging out skeletons from the rival cupboards with a vengeance.The Tuirial hydel power project in nearby Bilkhhawtlir village is still incomplete, though its construction started in 1998. Nearly Rs 300 crore for this scheme has allegedly been frittered away.

Khiangte alleged that a staggering sum of Rs 47 crore had been gobbled up in the name of compensation for land.

Amid all the mudslinging, MNF and UDA are targeting the Congress by raking up the pending cases of alleged corruption against former chief minister and the Mizoram PCC president Lalthanhawla.

The real issues are taking a back seat. The roads are shoddy, electricity remains a far cry and there are no rural development schemes.