SDF again won the comfortable majority :Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, Sikkim No alliance BJP with SKM for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the State

By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front(SDF) has termed the pre-poll alliance between Sikkim Krantikari Morcha(SKM) and BJP against the interests of the people of the state. “SKM has made itself a puppet on the strings of Delhi. It has ignored the aspirations and wishes of Sikkimese peope,”the party said in a statement. “By forging a pre-poll alliance with BJP they have auctioned the expectations of Sikkimese people and have caused harm to their future. We have different identity, special social and political significance.

No one should commit mistake of sacrificing history of Sikkim and aspirations of public,”SDF said. “SDF has been preserving the identity and history of Sikkim and rights, preventing dilution of Old Laws of Sikkim. Regional party, joining hands with a national party, cannot focus on local issues and cause harm,”it added.The BJP on Friday forged an alliance with opposition Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) to contest the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the State. The details of seat sharing between the two parties would be announced soon, BJP’s Sikkim in-charge Nitin Nabin said. SKM president P.S. Golay and BJP’s North-East in-charge Ram Madhav finalised the alliance in New Delhi, he said.

“The two parties have decided to form an alliance for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Sikkim,” Mr. Nabin, who was present during the meeting between Mr. Golay and Mr. Madhav, said over phone from New Delhi. In an identical post on Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Madhav announced that the two parties joined hands for the polls and described the SKM as the “main opposition party” in Sikkim. Elections will be held simultaneously for the 32-member Assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim on April 11. In the 2014 Assembly election, the SKM had won 10 seats but now it has only two MLAs in the House. Seven of the MLAs had defected to the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in 2015, while Mr. Golay was disqualified from the membership of the Assembly in 2016, following his conviction for a year in a corruption case.

The ruling SDF did not want to comment on the SKM-BJP alliance. “We have nothing to say on this issue as of now,” SKM spokesperson K.T. Gyaltsen said. On the SDF’s status in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Mr. Gyaltsen said his party continues to be a part of the coalition at the national level. The BJP’s Sikkim in-charge, however, denied this. “No…the SDF is not part of the NDA,” Mr. Nabin said. The SDF, led by the country’s longest serving Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, has 29 MLAs in the Assembly.The SDF again won the comfortable majority in Sikkim in the 2019 Assembly elections. now the SKM will not the major opposition party to challenge the SDF’s supremacy in the state.The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) under Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling said.