Sikkim Assembly Elections: Big Faith in Tamang, Decimation for Chamling and Bhaichung

Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by the Chief Minister for 25 years Pawan Chamling ate a humble pie while Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) led by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang emerged victorious for the second straight term, reports ETV Bharat's Sanjib Guha.

Siliguri:The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by the Chief Minister for 25 years Pawan Chamling failed to even put up a semblance of resistance in the Assembly elections 2024, which were held on April 19, the results of which were announced on Sunday. The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) led by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang earned the second straight term without a hiccup, cantering 31 seats in the 32-member House.

Considered bigwig in the national landscape, Bhaichung Bhutia also faced the ignominy of defeat, for the sixth time. Bhutia contested from Namchi's Barphung seat, but lost to Rickshel Dorji Bhutia. Even Pawan Chamling, the longest-serving Chief Minister in the country, contested from two seats--Namchi's Poklok Kamrang and Namchibung constituencies--but was unsuccessful in both attempts.

Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang contested from Sorenga the Chakung seat and won by a huge margin. Besides, he also fielded himself from the Rehnak seat to win by another big margin. Prem Singh Gol's wife Krishna Kumari Rai, contesting from the Namchi Singithan seat, also managed to win comfortably.

However, Tamang’s ally BJP had to bite the dust. And so was the Citizen Action Party. None of the parties could open their accounts in Sikkim in 2024. Election Commission sources revealed that former Chief Minister Pawan Chamling was defeated by SKM's Raju Basnet by 2,256 votes while in Poklok Kamrang, SKM's Bhojraj Rai had the last laugh by a margin of 3,063 votes. Bhaichung Bhutia was defeated by Riksel Dorji Bhutia by a margin of 4,346 votes.

Meanwhile, incumbent Chief Minister Tamang defeated AD Subba of SDF by 7,396 votes in the Sorenga Chakung seat, while he got the better of SDF’s Somnath Paudial by 7,044 votes from the Rehnak seat. Similarly, Chief Minister Tamang's wife contested from Namchi's Singithang seat for ESKM in which she defeated SDF's Bimal Rai by 5,302 votes.

It was doomsday for the Chamling-Bhaichung combo after managing to win only one seat in Siari. SDF's Tenzing Norbu Namtha defeated SKM's Kungana Nima Lepcha by 1,314 votes in the Siari assembly constituency.

SKM got a total of 58.38% of votes, while SDF could only muster 27.37%. BJP secured 5.18% votes in 30 seats, Congress bagged 0.32% in 10 seats they contested, Sikkim Citizen Action Party secured 7.77% and NOTA got 0.99%. It is learnt that Prem Singh Tamang and his MLAs staked claim to form the government and met Governor Lakshman Acharya on Sunday afternoon.

It was a real setback for football icon Bhaichung Bhutia. He forayed into the political arena, but he hardly tasted success. He lost his sixth election on the trot. He failed to alter his luck even after launching his outfit Humro Party only to be later merged with the Chamling-led SDF.

The former India skipper had contested polls twice from West Bengal on Trinamool Congress ticket. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he lost from the Darjeeling constituency and then in 2016, he went down in Siliguri. Migrating his electoral base to his home state Sikkim, he launched the Humro Party and contested the 2019 Assembly elections from Gangtok and Tumen-Lingi. He lost from both seats. To inflict more agony, Bhaichung lost the 2019 bypoll from Gangtok. Besides, the iconic footballer also lost the All India Football Federation’s presidential election to another former player Kalyan Chaubey in 2022. For the record, Bhaichung got only one vote against Chaubey’s 33 in the AIFF election.

On the rise, Tamang seems to be having a whale of a time since 2019. He rose in stature in leaps and bounds since he grabbed the power in Sikkim in 2019 ending the 25-year SDF reign in the state.

Prem Singh Tamang (Golay), who was once a minister in the SDF cabinet led by Pawan Chamling formed his party SKM in 2013, after having developed serious differences with the SDF president and then Sikkim CM Chamling. Six years down the line, Golay achieved his political goal in 2019. The 2024 polls once again documented the SKM’s rising popularity in Sikkim’s political landscape.

Last time in 2019, Tamang won 17 seats raising his numbers by seven since 2014. SDF managed 15. Soon after the thumping win, Tamang joined hands with the powers that be at the Centre's BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

With Tamang’s soaring stature and Chamling’s waning popularity, a significant picture that comes to the fore is the Sikkimese apathy for India’s largest political outfit BJP. Having contested in 30 out of 32 seats, the saffron party couldn’t taste notable success garnering a vote share of slightly over five per cent.