India’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named two former Christian pastors to contest on Nov. 28 elections in Mizoram, a move widely seen as an attempt to wrest power in the Christian-dominated eastern state. R. Colney and H. Lalruata are among the BJP candidates in the running for the 40- seat state legislature, where the rival Congress party won 34 seats in the previous election five years ago.
“It is not true that the BJP is a pro-Hindu and an anti-Christian party. This is one reason I decided to contest the elections,” Colney told ucanews.com.
“I am confident that people are with me,” the former pastor said, indicating that 87 percent of the state’s 1 million people are Christians.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, a senior BJP leader, said his party will win the poll. He said Lalruata joined the party as he was impressed by development happening under the BJP-led federal government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
