Sikkim alliance announces candidates

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 19 Mar 2019, Gangtok: The recently-formed Sikkim Progressive Alliance (SPA), which comprises four local parties, on Monday released its first list of nine nominees for the April 11 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Prominent among the candidates of the alliance are R. N. Chamling, sitting MLA and president of Sikkim Rashtriya Manch (SRM), who will contest from Rangang-Yangang Assembly seat, and Delay Namgyal Barfungpa, the president of the Sikkim National Peoples Party (SNPP), who has been fielded from the Gangtok seat.

The alliance's candidate for the lone Sikkim Lok Sabha is Narendra Adhikari, the president of the Sikkim United Front. Apart from the SRM, SNPP and the SPP, the other members of the four-party alliance is the Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP), which was in government for three terms from the late 1970s to early 1990s.

Addressing a press conference here, Dil Kumari Bhandari, a former MP and the president of the SSP, said the four parties had decided to put up a united fight at the behest of the public. "Public wants change. Twenty-five years (in power) is a very long time in a democracy. The public desires that in order to be successful (in bringing about the change in regime), we must go to them unitedly," she said, while terming the coming election as a "watershed" for Sikkim.

The Sikkim Democratic Front has been in power for the past 25 years. Its president and Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling is seeking a record sixth term in office.

R. N. Chamling, who is the younger brother of Pawan, said the alliance would provide a strong alternative to the SDF. "We want to send across a clear message to the people that they could vote for us blindly because we will not betray them," he asserted.