Lalduhoma (born 22 February 1949) is an Indian politician and former police officer who has been Chief Minister of Mizoram since 8 December 2023. An officer of the Indian Police Service who was once in charge of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s security, he entered politics in 1984 and, after nearly forty years, most of them in opposition, led a new party, the Zoram People’s Movement, to a sweeping election victory.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Lalduhoma |
| Born | 22 February 1949, Tualpui, Champhai district, Mizoram |
| Age | 77 |
| State | Mizoram |
| Education | Gauhati University |
| Earlier career | Indian Police Service (1977 batch) |
| Party | Zoram People’s Movement |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Mizoram (since December 2023); Member of the Lok Sabha (1984–1988) |
| Constituency | Serchhip |
| Spouse | Liansailovi |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
He was born in the village of Tualpui, near the border with Myanmar, the youngest child of a poor farming family. He did well at school. C. Chhunga, the first Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Mizoram, noticed him and gave him a job as a clerk in his office, and he studied in the evenings, graduating with distinction.
Police Officer
He passed the civil services examination and joined the Indian Police Service in 1977. He served in Goa, where he led operations against smuggling and drugs, and in 1982 was posted to Delhi and placed in charge of the security of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. He was also secretary of the organising committee of the 1982 Asian Games, under Rajiv Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi used him as a go-between with the Mizo rebel leader Laldenga, whom he met in London to persuade him to come to talks.
Career
Member of Parliament
He resigned from the police in 1984, joined the Congress and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mizoram that year. He soon fell out with the party’s state leadership and resigned from it. In November 1988 the Speaker disqualified him, making him the first member of Parliament to lose his seat under the anti-defection law passed three years earlier.
The long years
He worked with several regional parties and in 1997 founded his own, the Zoram Nationalist Party. For two decades it won few seats. Mizoram’s politics were dominated by two parties, the Congress and the Mizo National Front, which took turns in government.
The Zoram People’s Movement
Before the election of 2018 his party joined five others and a number of civil society groups in a common front, the Zoram People’s Movement, promising clean government and a break with the two old parties. Its candidates, standing as independents, won eight seats. He defeated the sitting Chief Minister in Serchhip.
In 2020 he was disqualified again, this time from the state assembly, on the ground that, elected as an independent, he had joined a party. He won the seat back in a by-election.
Chief Minister
In the election of November 2023 the Zoram People’s Movement won twenty-seven of the forty seats, defeating the Mizo National Front. He was sworn in on 8 December 2023, at seventy-four.
- **Economy:** he took over a state heavily in debt and promised to cut spending; his government has guaranteed minimum prices for ginger, turmeric, chilli and broom grass, crops on which hill farmers depend
- **Refugees:** Mizoram shelters tens of thousands of people from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Manipur who are ethnic kin of the Mizos. He has continued to give them refuge and has resisted central proposals to fence the Myanmar border and end free movement across it.
- **Government:** his party is aligned with neither of the national alliances
Personal Life
He is married to Liansailovi; they have two sons. He is a Presbyterian and an elder of his church, does not drink, and is known for a plain manner of living.
His counterparts in the neighbouring hill states include Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland and Conrad Sangma of Meghalaya.
Featured image: Lalduhoma, Chief Minister of Mizoram, in July 2025. Photo by the Prime Minister’s Office, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
