Gangtok: Sikkim Krantikari Morcha’s Indra Hang Subba won the lone Lok Sabha seat, and in the assembly elections, SKM led by Prem Singh Tamang won with a slender majority by winning 17 seats of the total 32 seats leaving the Chief Minister and his Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) with 15 seats.
It is to be noted that over the past four decades, state’s ruling party candidate has been sent to the Lok Sabha and this time too it was no different.
SKM thus ended Chamling’s 25-year rule in the State. The 68-year-old outgoing chief minister won both Poklok-Kamrang and Namchi Singhithang seats. There were 11 candidates in the run for the seat.
SKM’s Subba polled 1,54,999 votes, defeating his nearest rival D B Katwal of the SDF by over 11,000 votes. Katwal bagged 1,43,414 votes.
His ministerial colleague DT Lepcha too entered the state legislature from two seats – Martam Rumtek and Gnathang-Machong. Other ministers – Ugen T. Gyatso Bhutia and N K Subba — also romped home from the Tumin-lingi and Maneybong-dentam assembly constituencies. Minister Garjman Gurung, however, lost the election from the Khamdong-Singtam seat.
For the SKM, Kunga Nima Lepcha won from the Gangtok and Shyari assembly seats, while party supremo P S Golay’s 28 year-old son Aditya Golay entered the house from the Soreng-Chakung assembly seat. The SKM is likely to convene a parliamentary board meeting Friday to elect its chief ministerial candidate. According a report, the party cadre are in the favour of PS Golay to become the next chief minister.
Meanwhile, the SKM cadres celebrated the victory by bursting fire crackers and raising slogans. They also took out a victory procession in the state capital to mark the historic occasion.
Issuing a statement, SDF spokesperson K T Gyaltsen said, “We thank the people of Sikkim for giving us a long rope to serve them. We did our best to take our state on the path of development and prosperity under the leadership of Pawan Kumad Chamling.”