Baryl Vanneihsangi: Former Radio Jockey Is Now The Youngest Voice For Women In Mizoram Assembly

Elected on the Zoram People's Movement's (ZPM) ticket from the Aizawl South-III constituency, Baryl Vanneihsangi has become the youngest member of the Mizoram Assembly. The 32-year-old had worked as a radio jockey before stepping into politics. Vanneihsangi is quite popular among the people of the state, especially youth, for supporting gender equality and has over 252k followers on Instagram.

Vanneihsangi came to the limelight after she started raising her voice for more involvement of women in the state governance system. She said gender is no bar for women to pursue anything of their choice. "I just want to tell all the women out there that our gender doesn't stop us from doing anything that we like and wish to pursue. It doesn't prevent us from taking up something that we are passionate about. My message to them is that regardless of which community or social strata they belong to, if they want to take up something they should just go for it," said Vanneihsangi as quoted by the news agency ANI.

The youngest MLA emerged victorious against the Mizo National Front's F. Lalnunmawia by 1,414 votes.

The 40-member Mizoram Assembly saw a battle between 174 candidates, of which only 16 were women. While only three women candidates managed to secure victories in their respective constituencies.

The Zoram People Movement was founded by a former IPS Lalduhoma in 2018 to battle up against Congress and the Mizo National Front. That time the newly formed party won 8 out of 40 seats, But this time, the revolutionary party registered a landslide victory by bagging 27 seats. Followed by the MNF with 10 seats, the BJP two and the Congress one. According to the reports, the sworn-in ceremony for the new Chief Minister of Mizoram will be held on Friday.