In the 9th Sikkim Assembly Election simultaneously held with the Lok Sabha election on 12th April, his party SDF again stormed to power for the record fifth consecutive term in the State by winning 22 seats in the 32 member state Assembly. He is now about to break the record of former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu who was Chief Minister from 1977 to 2000. Provided that there are no hiccups and Pawan Chamling completes this current tenure, he will have broken Jyoti Basu’s record by the time Sikkim goes to polls again in 2019 to elect its next batch of MLAs.

In this election, Pawan Kumar Chamling had contested in two constituencies namely Namchi – Singhithang and Rangang – Yangang. He defeated his nearest rival Milan Rai of the newly floated political party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) by a comfortable margin of 1,084 votes from Namchi-Singhithang. SKM President Prem Singh Golay also contested in two constituencies - Upper Burtuk and Namthang - Rateypani. However, he could win only from Upper Burtuk constituency and was defeated by a close margin from Namthang – Rateypani by SDF candidate Tilu Gurung. Pawan Chamling had come to power in 1994 after beating the three time Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari led Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP).

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