Two SDF MLAs join SKM... LONGEST RULING PARTY LEFT WITH CHAMLING IN SIKKIM HOUSE

Rajeev Ravidas TT, 15 August 2919, Gangtok: Two Sikkim Democratic Front MLAs joined the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha on Wednesday, a day after 10 SDF legislators had defected to the BJP.

With the defection of 12 MLAs, the SDF is left with just its president and former chief minister Pawan Chamling in the 32-member Assembly.

Following the haemorrhage of legislators from Chamling's party, the equation in the Assembly is SKM 18, BJP 10, SDF 1. Three seats are lying vacant "This means even if the SKM were to lose all the three by-polls, its government will be safe unless anything foreseen happens," said a source.

The developments in Sikkim are watched nationally because of the manner in which the BJP, which bagged only 1.62 per cent of votes in the recently held Assembly polls, has made clear its intentions to wrest control of the north eastern state, where it has miserably failed to make any political impact.

Within hours of their defection to SKM on Wednesday, erstwhile SDF legislators G. T. Dhungel and Em Prasad Sharma made it clear that they had changed sides to keep the BJP at bay. "We have regional senti- ments and the people of Sikkim also prefer regional parties. We, too, have decided to join the regional party that is running the government and work for the people," said Sharma, while adding that they were principally opposed to joining a national party.

According to him, they had conveyed this message to their senior colleagues in the SDF legislative party. "We have seen in the recent election where the mandate of the people lies. The BJP barely got two per cent of the votes," said Dhungel.

In the elections, SDF bagged 47.63 per cent of the votes while the SKM's share was 47.03 per cent. "The mood has been anti- BJP," he added. Against this background, the question doing the rounds in Gangtok is what prompted so many SDF legislators to switch flanks. Amid the different theories floating in the Himalayan air, the SKM and Bhaichung Bhutia's Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) accused Chamling of orchestrating the entire drama.

"We feel the SDF leadership (read Chamling) has a big hand in the 10 MLAs joining BJP," said Jacob Khaling, an SKM spokesman and political secretary to chief minister P. S. Golay.

The HSP was even more scathing. "This move is com- pletely masterminded by the former CM, Mr Chamling, in order to save himself from the CBI by keeping the BJP happy by offering 10 MLAs," said Yogen Rai, a spokesman for the party.

The other question in Sikkim is whether the BJP can win the three bypolls and then engineer more defections to topple the SKM government.

Some observers, however, said the SKM could actually gain in the byelections as the present political upheaval could work to its advantage. "The SDF stands completely discredited and the BJP does not have any base in Sikkim. In such a situation, the only party which stands to benefit is the SKM," said an observer..