Mizoram Speaker and Congress leader of Mizoram, Hiphei has resigned from his post, the House and the Congress party. He has now joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The news comes almost three weeks ahead of assembly elections in the state. After resigning from Congress he went onto join BJP. He submitted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker R Lalrinawma and then went to the Congress Bhavan to resign from the primary membership of the party.
He has been a legislator for six times between 1972 and 1989 from Tuipang. He was elected to the Mizoram Assembly from Palak constituency in 2013 and was nominated from the same for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Hiphei is the fifth Congress MLA to resign from the 40-member House since September.
Himanta Biswa Sarma , BJP leader and Assam Finance Minister said that Hiphei is a senior leader whose presence in the party will make it strong. “He is a very senior leader. His joining the saffron party will greatly strengthen the organisation,” said Sarma.
He, however, did not comment on whether the party will field Hiphei from any constituency in the upcoming Assembly polls in state or not.
Mizoram, the only state in the north-east under Congress rule, will go to the polls on November 28.