Chamling rival tests waters

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Mar 24, 2018, Gangtok: After a long lull, the streets of Gangtok reverberated with political slogans as the main Opposition party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) took out a rally on Saturday, sounding the bugle for next year's Assembly election.

SKM had been lying low since the sentencing of its founding president P. S. Golay in a corruption case in August last year. Golay, who has been serving a year's jail term, is due to be released in end-August. On Monday, though, amid cries of "P. S. Golay zindabad", SKM activists took out a rally in support of its seven-point demand.

The demands of the party include an end to the practice of providing service extension and reemployment to retired government employees, an end to all ad hoc appointments, job regularisation of Home Guards who have completed five years or more, abolition of labour contract system, immediate filling up of vacant positions in various government departments, preference for locals in the tourism industry and withdrawal of pilot escorts to ministers.

In a brief speech at the end of the rally, K. N. Lepcha, the acting SKM president, appealed to the people to work as one in order to pressure the government to accept the demands keeping in mind the interest of the Sikkimese people. "We will be meeting the governor later today to press our demands," he said.

Later, talking to reporters, SKM spokesman Jacob Rai said since chief minister Pawan Chamling has been turning a deaf year to its demands, the party was left with no choice other than to seek the intervention of the governor. "The governor must exercise his constitutional powers to ensure action from the state government, or else he, too, would be failing in his duty," he said.

Saturday's rally was a clear indication that it was gearing up for a fight with the ruling Sikkim Democratic Party (SDF), come 2019," said the observer.

In the 2014 election, the SKM had given a strong fight to the SDF, winning 10 out of the 32 seats. However, eight of the 10 SKM legislators later defected to the SDF.