Sikkim Assembly Polls 2019: Pawan Chamling eyes 6th term as CM amid fractured challenge

For several years after Sikkim joined the Union of India on May 16, 1975, Congress and the Sikkim Janata Parishad dominated the state’s politics. The period between 1975 and 1985 saw multiple governments and President’s Rule.

Since 1985, the state has been governed by stable governments — first led by Nar Bahadur Bhandari’s Sikkim Sangram Parishad and then by Pawan Kumar Chamling’s Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF).

Over the years, the Congress and other Opposition parties have been politically marginalised. In fact, in 2014, only nine Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Opposition Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) were elected to the 32-member Assembly.

The central theme of the election will be CM Chamling fighting to win an uninterrupted sixth term in office. Chamling is already the longest-serving chief minister of any state in India.

Key parties

Sikkim Democratic Front: The party has led the state government from 1994. Chamling has been the only leader to have led the party since then — for five full terms.

In 2014, SDF won 22 out of the 32 seats. It had a vote share of 55.03 percent in the state. However, the party has 29 MLAs in the outgoing Assembly as many Opposition lawmakers joined the party.

Battling anti-incumbency, the SDF has announced it would roll out Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the state. This would make Sikkim the first state in the country to do so.

The party is also looking to field fresh faces in several seats, to beat anti-incumbency. According to reports, almost half of the sitting MLAs would be replaced.

Also read: How Universal Basic Income can see light of day

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha: The party was formed by Prem Singh Tamang in 2013. Tamang, better known as PS Golay, was earlier an SDF MLA.

In the previous Assembly election, SKM bagged 10 seats. It had a vote share of 40.80 percent in the state.

Seven MLAs had defected to the ruling SDF in 2015, while Golay was disqualified from the membership of the Assembly in 2016, following his conviction for a year in a corruption case.

On March 8, SKM announced that it had allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for both the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

Congress

While the Congress was once a dominant force in Sikkim, its vote share in the state in 2014 was just 1.42 percent — lower than NOTA (None of the Above) with 1.44 percent. It had also lost its deposit in all 32 seats.

Humro Sikkim Party

The party was founded by former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia in 2018. Bhutia was earlier a member of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and had contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling and the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections from Siliguri.

In early March, HSP announced that it would contest all 32 Assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim. He also auctioned two of his jerseys to raise funds for the party.

Bhutia’s party has also announced it would implement the UBI scheme if it comes to power. The party manifesto talks about implementing policies to ensure a 'Happy Sikkim' within five years. These include programmes to make youth self-reliant and safeguard them from the politics of slogans.

Opinion polls

The Assembly election in Sikkim will happen simultaneously to the Lok Sabha polls. The lone parliamentary seat in Sikkim has been held by the SDF since 1996. The party has decided to field sitting MP Prem Das Rai again.

While there have been no major opinion polls for the assembly polls, a Times Now-VMR survey from mid-March suggests that the SDF would win the Lok Sabha seat.