Guwahati, Apr. 26 – Elected members of the BJP and Congress have joined hands to run Mizoram’s Chakma Tribal Council, a surprise move engineered by local Congress leaders to keep the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) out of power.

No party had a majority in this month’s elections to the Chakma Autonomous District Council that was set up in 1972 to let the Buddhist tribal community govern themselves. The ruling Congress had ended up with just six seats in the 20-member Council and the BJP had five. The MNF, a constituent of BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, was the largest party in the Council, with eight seats.

Amit Shah, the BJP President had done the math in Delhi and it seemed obvious that the BJP and the MNF would come to power. He went ahead to tweet his congratulatory message. “BJP-MNF, between them has won 13 out of the 20 seats…. It also marks beginning of BJP’s rise in Mizoram,” Shah had tweeted.

Local Congress leaders, however, were able to persuade the BJP’s elected leaders to make a different choice. As part of this deal, it has given the BJP leaders the Council’s Chairman’s post and settled for the deputy’s post.

The BJP, however, clearly isn’t happy with how its elected members have disregarded instructions. “We are shocked,” a BJP leader in Aizawl said, complaining that the Congress appeared to have succeeded in getting their representatives to switch sides.