The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) has named Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang’s wife Krishna Kumari Rai as a candidate for one of the State’s 32 Assembly constituencies but dropped their son from another.
While Ms. Rai will contest from the Namchi-Singhithang constituency, the Chief Minister will replace his son Aditya Tamang in the Soreng-Chakung seat. The Chief Minister, who represents the Poklok-Kamrang seat now, will also contest from the Rhenock constituency.
“The decision to field the Chief Minister from two constituencies and his wife was taken by our party’s parliamentary board,” Assembly Speaker Arun Kumar Upreti told journalists in the capital Gangtok on Monday.
Apart from the Chief Minister’s son, the SKM dropped two ministers – Bishnu Kharel and Karma Loden Bhuta – and renominated nine ministers. The party accommodated three defectors from the Bharatiya Janata Party – Rajkumari Thapa from Rangang-Yangyang, Sonam Venchungpa from Martam-Rumtek, and Pintso Namgyal Lepcha from Dzongu.
Ms. Thapa and Mr. Lepcha won their respective seats as SDF candidates in 2019 but switched over to the BJP mid-term.
The SKM also renominated MP Indra Hang Subba for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Himalayan State.
Bhaichung from Barfung
Former Chief Minister and founder-president of the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), Pawan Kumar Chamling shifted from Namchi-Singhithang to Poklok-Kamrang apparently to avoid facing his successor’s wife.
He is currently the lone representative of the SDF, which won 15 seats in the 2019 elections, in the State’s 32-member House. The others defected to the BJP and the SKM.
Mr. Chamling will face the SKM’s Bhoj Raj Rai in Poklok-Kamrang.
Among the prominent names in the SDF line-up are that of former Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, who merged his Hamro Sikkim Party with the Chamling-led party in November 2023.
Mr. Bhutia will face the SKM’s Rikshal Dorjee Bhutia in the Barfung constituency.
Apart from 26 candidates for the Assembly elections, the SDF nominated Prem Das Rai as its Lok Sabha candidate.
Although the SKM is a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance, the two parties will face off in 14 constituencies apart from the Lok Sabha constituency where the saffron party named Dinesh Chandra Nepal as its candidate on Sunday.
The BJP contested 12 seats in the 2019 Assembly polls but drew a blank after managing to garner only 1.62% of the votes. It later roped in 10 MLAs from the SDF.
On March 23, Congress released a list of 18 candidates, including that of Kapil Sapkota who will take on the Chief Minister in Rhenock.
