Lalduhoma
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A brief biography
Prabin Kalita, Dec 5, 2023: The Times of India
Long before “Who is Lalduhoma?” showed up on search engines, the 74-year-old former IPS officer of the 1977 batch was already a household name in Mizoram. Those outside the state who had heard the name before would have remembered him as the country’s first MP to be disqualified under the anti-defection law, and then again as an MLA.
On Monday, after orchestrating the biggest upheaval in the Christian-majority North-Eastern state’s politics, Lalduhoma had the air of someone who knew his time to be known for the right reasons would come. “I have been struggling all these years for this moment.”
Born in Tualpui village of Champhai district, bordering Myanmar, education was Lalduhoma’s escape from poverty. He excelled in academics, catching the eye of the then Union Territory’s first CM, C Chhunga, who gave him a job as principal assistant in his office in 1972.
Lalduhoma simultaneously enrolled at Gauhati University, graduating with distinction and going on to clear the civil services exam five years later. As an IPS officer posted in Goa, he was ruthless against the drug mafia, building a reputation strong enough to impress then PM Indira Gandhi into getting him transferred to New Delhi in 1982 and making him a part of her security detail. At Indira’s behest, Lalduhoma helped bring insurgent leader Laldenga’s Mizo National Front to the negotiating table.
He later joined Delhi Police as additional DC on Rajiv Gandhi’s recommendation. Lalduhoma remained in police service till 1984.
In 1984, he joined Congress and was elected unopposed as Mizoram’s MP. He would resign from the party four years later, inviting disqualification as an MP.
Lalduhoma returned home and formed Mizoram Congress for Peace, which he rechristened Mizo National Union (MNU) in 1986. The party’s foray into electoral politics the next year was a disaster as it failed to win even a single seat.
MNU merged with another small entity to create the Democratic Party, only to split soon after. Lalduhoma then joined MNF, which he quit in 1997 after being defeated by Zoramthanga in the race for the party president.
He then formed MNF (Nationalist), which metamorphosed into Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP). In 2018, he led a new combination called Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) to victories in eight assembly seats.
