be an astute Ch. Saprawnga. From the start he was the instigator of the first coup in 1946. When the party won the first governmental election in 1952, at the time Mizoram was a district of Assam, Saprawnga as the leader of Assam Legislative Assembly members from Mizoram, was offered as an honour the position on Parliamentary Secretary under the ruling Assam Congress Party. The ever strategic Saprawnga declined and unexpectedly returned to the Mizoram District and cast a motion of no confidence against CEM Lalsawia, who he eventually replaced. The ingenious Saprawnga then designated Lalsawia as an Executive Member to the dismay of the party, especially the then President R. Thanhlira. After feud and friction in the party, Thanhlira conceded to resigning the presidency. This led to factional divide of the party into two, Saprawnga's and Lalsawia's sides. The split in the party paid a serious blow when they almost lost to UMFO (11 against 8) in the 1957 election. To the blessing of Saprawnga, UMFO and Lalsawia with his clique decided to join a Meghalaya-based Eastern India Tribal Union (EITU) party in October 1957, so that Saprawnga was left with the sole political party of the land. Dissolution The principal goal of the Mizo Union, which was to subjugate customary tribal administration, was quite fulfilled by the creation of the democratic administration of the District Council. But the other causes - independence and greater Mizoram - were not. The original aspiration of sovereignty was immediately subdued, and the attempt for unification of all Mizo tribes into a united state was a total failure. Instead the party was more and more engrossed in the Indian politics, to the disappointment of many, and this was one of the basic factors of the rise of Mizo National Front and the eventual uprising. The party had no agenda for promotion of ethnic identity and social backlashes. This shortcoming was compounded by the 1959 famine, as the ruling party was held incapable of solving the socio-economic crisis, and was accused of indifference towards the suffering of the people. This prompted the organisation of Mizo National Front which attempted to alleviate the situation as one agenda, and a renewed struggle for independence as the other. These policies, as before, were closer to the sentiments of the people, and actually the sealed the fate of the Mizo Union. A scheduled 1966 election could not be