After a remarkable victory at the Serchhip Bye- Election held on April 17, 2021, the result of which was declared on May 2, 2021, the newly elected MLA Lalduhawma was sworn in today as the official Member of the Legislative Assembly by the Assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo. 

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Assembly Conference Hall at the Assembly Annexe building. Due to the restrictions imposed by the current state- wide lockdown, the ceremony was attended by selected government officials including H. Lalrinawma, Commissioner and Secretary Asembly, Lalchamliana (Home Minister,1), Lalchhandama (School Education Minister) and a fewother members of the Legislative Assembly. The swearing-in ceremony proceeded smoothly following a wave of heated uproars on social media from the ZPM supporters as there were suspicions that the swearing- in ceremony was intentionally delayed by the ruling MNF party.

Before the swearing-in ceremony commenced, Lalrinliana, the Assembly Speaker, addressed a press conference where he offered explanation regarding the long time gap between the announcement of the election result and the swearing-in ceremony, stating that they had to wait for the right time while observing the SOP laid out by the government.  

 

In September 2020, a group of twelve members of the Legislative Assembly of the belonging to the ruling party, Mizo National Front (MNF) had petitioned the Speaker, seeking the disqualification of Lalduhawma for allegedly breaching Para 2(2) of the 10th schedule of the Constitution. After issuing a show- cause notice, in November 2020, Lalduhawma was disqualified as a Member of the Legislative Assembly on the grounds of violating the anti- defection law by defecting to the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) after being elected as an Independent MLA in the 2018 Assembly polls. Significantly, it was 32 years ago when Lalduhawma became the first Lok Sabha MP to be disqualified under the anti- defection law in 1988 after he resigned from the Congress (I) party. In the 2018 election, he acquired victory in two seats, Aizawl West-I and Serchhip constituency, where he defeated incumbent Chief Minister Lalthanhawla of the Congress. He, later, vacated the Aizawl west- I seat to retain the Serchhip constituency. Winning the Serchhip bye- election by securing 8,269 votes, Lalduhawma is now able to resume his former position in the state Legislative Assembly. 

Currently, the Mizoram Legislative Assembly comprises of 40 MLA’s- 27 from the ruling MNF party, 5 from Indian National Congress (INC,1), 1 from Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and 6 independent MLAs.