Former Sikkim CM dead

TT & PTI, July 16:  Nar Bahadur Bhandari, the obscure schoolteacher who rose to become a long-serving chief minister of Sikkim, died today, state government sources said. He was 77.

The three-term former chief minister, who leaves behind his wife Dil Kumari Bhandari, a former MP, two daughters and a son, breathed his last at a Delhi hospital this afternoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the demise of Bhandari and praised his role in Sikkim's progress.

"Saddened by the demise of Shri Nar Bahadur Bhandari. His contribution towards Sikkim's progress will always be remembered. My condolences," the Prime Minister's office said in a Twitter post.

Born in 1940 at Malbasey in West Sikkim, Bhandari was a teacher in a government school before he joined active politics.

He became the chief minister of the tiny Himalayan state for the first time in 1979 on a Janata Parishad ticket and then again in 1984 and 1989 on a Sikkim Sangram Parishad ticket. The founder of the SSP, Bhandari remained its president till his death.

Known as a pragmatic and resilient leader, Bhandari was the second chief minister after L.D. Kazi to hold the reins of the fledgling state which officially became part of the Indian Union in 1975.

He was also a former president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee.

Chief minister Pawan Chamling said Sikkim "has lost a worthy son of the soil whose contribution to the state and its people" was unparalleled.