Chamling creates history

EOI, Gangtok , 17 May 2014: Sikkim Democratic Front president and Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling is all set to create history when he takes oath of office for a fifth term, a record in the nation’s history. He will become the only CM to have ruled for the longest period once he completes three years in office during the new term, surpassing Jyoti Basu who ruled West Bengal for 23 years.

The SDF won the assembly elections by a clear 2/3rd majority, the results of which were declared Friday evening. It won 22 of the 32 seats in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly, while the remaining 10 went to the PS Golay-led Sikkim Krantikari Morcha. The SDF also won the lone Lok Sabha seat from the state, with its candidate PD Rai defeating his nearest rival TN Dhakal of the SKM by some 42,000 votes.

Sikkim, the erstwhile Chogyal kingdom and India’s 22nd state, created political history after its electorate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the SDF for the fifth consecutive term in the assembly elections, electing Pawan Chamling as the longest running head of government of any state in the country. The SDF has succeeded in impressing voters by its promises of peace, development and sustainability, which it has proven to a fair degree by successfully implementing various development works over the past 20 years.

Chamling first came to power in December 12, 1994 after defeating Nar Bahadur Bhandari and has never looked back since. He has already ruled the state for 20 years and is on course to become the only CM to celebrate a silver jubilee when his fifth term ends in 2019.

Pawan Chamling was born on September 22, 1950 in Yangang, south Sikkim. He joined politics in 1973 and was elected president of Yangyang Gram Panchayat in 1982 at the age of 32. He was elected to the Sikkim Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1985. Chamling won once again in the fourth assembly elections from Damthang Constituency by securing 96 per cent of the votes and was inducted in the Bhandari government as minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992.

A year later on March 4, 1993, Chamling broke away from Bhandari’s Sikkim Sangram Parishad to form the Sikkim Democratic Front on the core principles of upholding democracy, justice, liberty and the development aspirations of the people. His party swept the polls in the 1994 assembly elections and it has remained the SDF ever since, in 1999, 2004, 2009 and now in 2014.

Chamling has been successful in developing Sikkim as a model Himalayan state over the past two decades. Today, the state is a global brand in terms of ecotourism and has earned fame for being the country’s cleanest state. Travel guide giant Lonely Planet has declared Sikkim as the best region to visit in 2014, describing it as one of the best-managed small states in the country.