Aizawl: The Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a pre-poll electoral alliance formed by various parties on Tuesday, declared its constituent Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) president and former MP Lalduhoma as its chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly elections to be held this year, at Chanmari YMA hall here.
The ZPM was formed in August last year initially by Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP), Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) and Zoram Exodus Movement (ZEM) and later joined by Zoram Decentralisation Front (ZDF), Zoram Reformation Front (ZRF) and Mizoram People's Party (MPP), the last political party to join ZPM's banner on February 22 to make it a six-party alliance. ZPM constituent MPC has one sitting MLA in the present government.
Addressing a function to mark the announcement of chief ministerial candidate here on Tuesday, the former MP from Mizoram Lalduhoma pledged reformation and development of Mizoram by bringing dramatic changes to the state's political system.
He said the ZPM, if it came to power, would establish a people's government.
The IPS officer-turned-politician said he would give his best to become an ideal chief minister and fulfil the aspirations of the people.
The 69-year-old leader from Chawlhhmun here said Aizawl will be declared as a "city of churches" if the ZPM comes to power.
Citing that a country's prosperity depends on good leaders, Lalduhoma asked people to learn from Japan, Singapore and Spain, small countries which despite a lack of resources, became economic powers simply because of their good leaders and diligence of the citizens.
He said good governance through political change is crucial to lead a country to prosperity. "Priority will be given to development of farmers and our government will buy farmers' products by allocating special funds in the state's budget," he said.
Lalduhoma quit his career as IPS officer and joined the Congress in 1984 and became MP. He later formed the Mizo National Union (MNU) which was later merged with the MPC. After this, he joined the Mizo National Front (MNF) but later broke away to form the ZNP. He was elected as MLA from Ratu constituency in 2003.
