November 15, 2021: Mizoram’s former Chief Minister  and state Congress president Lal Thanhawla would soon retire from politics and pass on the party leadership to a more younger and energetic leader.

Lal Thanhawla on Sunday told the reporters that he has decided to retire from politics and will not contest the next assembly elections due in 2023.

The 83-year old veteran politician had joined the underground movement spearheaded by Mizo National Front (MNF) in the 1960s and entered into active politics after his release from jail in 1967. In 1973 he became the president of Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) the post which he holds till date.

After his election as a legislator in Union Terriory elections in 1978, Lal Thanhawla had lost only two state assembly polls in 1998 and 2018. He became the chief minister of the state five times between 1984 and 2018. In 1986, when the Mizoram Peace Accord was signed between the Union government and the MNF, Lal Thanhawla stepped down from the chief minister's post to make way for MNF leader Laldenga.