On June 2, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) party, under the leadership of incumbent Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay), registered a landslide victory in Sikkim’s Legislative Assembly elections. The final results came as a surprise to many observers, not because of the victory itself, but due to the significant margins in both the total seat count and the percentage of votes secured by the SKM in each constituency.
Prior to the announcement of the results, prevailing sentiments within the state suggested that this was going to be a closely-contested electoral battle between the incumbent SKM and the main Opposition party, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling. However, the SKM won 31 out of 32 seats with a total vote percentage of 58.38.
The Golay wave
Apart from the total number of seats, the SKM’s biggest achievement this election has been the constituency-wise vote share with which it won. The election results data suggests a massive Golay “wave”. The first indication is in Rhenock constituency where he won with 64.54 per cent of the votes, followed by the SDF’s Som Nath Poudyal, who was able to secure 19.5 per cent of the votes.
What’s noteworthy is that Rhenock is an upper-caste stronghold despite being the SKM’s winning seat since 2014. When the party lost the 2014 assembly elections, its upper-caste candidate Hemendra Adhikari won from there. Later, in 2019, it was another upper-caste candidate, Bishnu Kumar Sharma, who won for the party. So when Golay, hailing from a tribal community, submitted his candidacy for Rhenock against the veteran upper-caste politician from SDF, Poudyal, the decision appeared risky. Golay’s massive success in attracting votes across castes is a clear sign of a wave in his favour. He also won in Soreng-Chakung constituency with a massive 72 per cent votes.
Another interesting constituency to look at to understand the Golay wave is Gyalshing-Barnyak. Here, the SDF found itself in a weakened position even before announcing its candidate, due to the challenge of identifying a strong contender.
The situation also posed challenges for the SKM when it nominated veteran politician Lok Nath Sharma as its candidate. After being denied the party ticket from the constituency, another leader from within the party, Khusandra Prasad Sharma, opted to run as an independent. It was widely believed that Khusandra would win, with support from young voters. Yet, Lok Nath won by a narrow margin, with 48.1 per cent votes against Khusandra’s 39.85 per cent votes. While Lok Nath deserves much credit for his win, Golay’s appeal to young voters — both for himself and his party — remains evident.
Battle of two narratives
During the SKM’s tenure, between 2019 and 2024, the state witnessed violence against political activities and students. The SKM government was criticised for how it handled these incidents. Therefore, one of the SDF’s main political promises was to bring peace back to the state, so much so that this was the first promise in its manifesto. However, the SKM’s narrative of job security seems to have overwhelmed the peace narrative. Since the beginning of the year, CM Golay has distributed thousands of job appointments, regularised those in ad-hoc positions or gave memorandum for regularisation to temporary employees and promoted those already in regular jobs.
The election result data suggests that those who received this job appointment, promotion or regularisation orders voted for the SKM.
Role of CAP and BJP
Although failing to secure any seats in this assembly election, the newly established Citizen Action Party (CAP), led by Ganesh Rai, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, appear to have made a significant impact on Sikkim’s political landscape.
One of the main reasons for the SKM’s massive victory in each constituency against the SDF, is that the CAP and the BJP have been able to secure some amount of Opposition votes. In Temi-Namphing, the CAP candidate got 20.06 per cent of the votes while the SDF candidate secured 24.55 per cent. The SKM’s Bedu Singh Panth won in this seat with 51.84 per cent of the votes, while in Upper Burtuk constituency, the BJP’s D R Thapa secured the second position with 30.1 per cent of the votes following the winner, Kala Rai from the SKM, who secured 50.54 per cent.
A new era in Sikkim
This election also signifies the end of an era that began in 1994 and was led by Chamling for a record five terms from 1994 to 2019. He contested from two constituencies, Poklok-Kamrang and Namcheybung, and lost both to the SKM’s candidates with approximately 20 per cent fewer votes in each constituency.
The sole SDF candidate to emerge victorious is Tenzing Norbu Lamtha from the Shari constituency. He initially belonged to the SKM but joined the SDF after being denied a party ticket. It will not be surprising if he decides to rejoin the SKM in the near future.
The writer is assistant professor, Department of Liberal Arts, SRM University AP
