State election commissioner C. Ropianga today said altogether 2,118 members would be elected to the 510 village councils, which is equivalent to a panchayat body in other states. At the same time, another batch of 524 members would be elected to the urban local councils within the limits of the Aizawl municipality council.
An electorate of 4,06,063 will exercise their franchise in 651 polling booths for the village council, while 1,74,868 voters will cast their votes in the 174 polling centres for the urban local council, Ropianga added.
Sources in the state said local issues ranging from health and education to new farming methods and the need to do away with jhum cultivation will be the poll planks of the parties during campaign.
The counting of votes will be taken up after polling is over in each village and Aizawl urban area. However, the village council polls, which are being held after three years, will not be held in Mizoram’s southern districts of Lunglei and Lawngtlai as they are under the jurisdiction of the three autonomous district councils of the Lai, Mara and Chakma according to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.
Zodintlunga, minister for urban development and information and public relations, in the Congress-run government in Mizoram, told this correspondent that his party would sweep the rural polls in the state.
The government has deferred the four-day North East Games, 2012, slated to start on February 21 to February 27.