Sikkim ruling party, BJP in Bypoll tie-up

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 29 September 2019, Gangtok: The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and the BJP on Saturday announced an alliance for the October 21 byelections to three Assembly seats in Sikkim. 

But neither ally specified whether chief minister and SKM president P.S. Tamang (Golay), who has been holding office since May but is not a member of the Assembly, will contest from one of the seats in the byelections.

The BJP will contest the Martam-Rumtek and Gangtok seats, and the SKM PoklokKamrang. "We have been in alliance with the BJP both in the NDA and the NEDA and this is a culmination of it," said Jacob Khaling, SKM spokesperson and political secretary to Golay .

Khaling said the SKM had put forward a five-point demand as a pre-condition for the pre-poll alliance, and the BJP has agreed to consider them. The demands include seat reservations for the Limbus and the Tamangs in the Assembly, ST status for 11 Nepali-speaking communities, income tax exemption for old settlers, protection of Article 371F which provides special status to Sikkim, and retention of the old laws of Sikkim.

Nitin Navin, the BJP's minder for Sikkim, said the demands raised by the SKM were part of the BJP's election manifesto in the Assembly polls. "We want to establish a transparent, development-oriented and corruption-free government in Sikkim.

In the past, the SKM had supported the BJP in a byelection in 2014, but this is the first time it has gone for a formal pre-poll alliance. The SKM has 18 MLAs and the BJP 10 in the 32-member House. If their alliance were to win all the seats in the bypolls, its strength would swell to 31, leaving former chief minister and presi- dent of Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) Pawan Chamling as the lone member on the Opposition bench.

All 10 BJP MLAs are defectors from the SDF, which had bagged 15 seats in the April 11 Assembly elections. Two other SDF legislators subsequently defected to the SKM 

"Politics in Sikkim has come to a sorry pass. Both principal regional parties, the SDF and the SKM, are bending over backwards to accommodate the BJP. The SDF provided the saffron party, which had secured less than 2 per cent votes, backdoor entry. Now the SKM has opened the front door," said an analyst.

It however remains to be seen how the people will react to the developments, given their perceived distrust of national parties. "A defeat for the BJP in either or both seats will be construed as an affirmation of the people's inherent distrust of national parties," said the analyst. 

What also remains to be seen is whether Golay contests the bypolls or not. Golay, a former corruption convict, had not contested the Assembly election but was invited to form the government on May 27 after the SKM secured a slender victory. In order to continue in office, he will have to get himself elected to the Assembly within six months of assuming office. 

Asked about the possibility of Golay contesting, Navin said it was for the Election Commission to take a call on his eligibility. Khaling, on the other hand, said the SKM's lawmakers would meet on Sunday and take a decision.

The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951, bars a person convicted of corruption from contesting any election for six years from the date of his release. Golay was released from prison on August 10 last year after serving a year's term.