SDF MP candidate P. D Rai defeated his main rival K. N. Upreti by 84,868 votes. The Sangha seat, normally a bastion of the Congress was also bagged by SDF, although this was won by a narrow margin of 55 votes.

The Congress had fielded its candidates for the 32 assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat and was hopeful of winning by a large margin as the State Congress was able to bring in the star campaigner of the Congress Mr. Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Luizinho Falero and Maj. Ved Prakash to the state for poll management. However, despite the presence and cooperation of such bigwigs, the Congress could not perform well and eventually bit the dust.

Congress’ Bhandari had contested from Singtam - Khamdong and Soreng - Chakung constituencies and was defeated by a rookie Am Prasad Sharma by a margin of 1266 votes and R. B. Subba by 4119 votes in the two seats respectively.

The reason behind SDF’s complete victory

Chamling, in a press conference held after his government’s swearing-in-ceremony  said the SDF poll planks of justice, security, opportunity and development attracted the voters. He also said, “We fought the election without prejudice and vindictiveness. That is why we are successful.”

He added that to win a consecutive fourth term was not his mission but the people of Sikkim have approved the SDF government’s works and policies and accordingly “they gave us a thumping mandate to retain power.”

Mr. Bhim Dahal, General Secretary of the party, also says that the reason behind the win by SDF is the pro-people programmes and policies of the party. Proper utilization and conservation of natural resources, maintenance of peace and security in the state, infrastructural development in the state etc are the main works through which the SDF government could get great support from the people. He adds that the SDF always fought against the communalism and caste politics. But the opposition parties resorted to communal and cast card in the election and that created hatred among the electorate.

Other political observers say that the denying of tickets to 20 sitting MLAs including senior ministers by Chamling in this election because they had apparently performed badly and did not have good rapport with the public is one of the reasons why the SDF has retained power. Chamling improved the image and ability of the party by bringing in young blood. 

Another reason is that they did not have the organisational base of the Congress, let alone the organisational structure. They did not have a single leader who was attached to the party for more than a year. As such, they had to request the people walking on the streets to stand for election as their party candidate.

Besides, after the visit of Rahul Gandhi in Sikkim, Bhandari started dreaming of Mungerialal ka hasin sapana (Mungerilal’s pleasant dreams) being overconfident of winning the seat and did not bother to contact the people and strategise.

The absence of the united front is also one of the major reasons for the poll debacle of the Congress.

According to a political analyst, 15 per cent of the total votes were silence votes. They could swing to whichever direction wherein the prospect was seen as bright. In this case, these votes veered toward the  SDF.

For The Record 

Chamling has set record after record in his stint. After a formidable victory in this election, he has become the longest serving Chief Minister in the country. Chamling, on having 100 per cent new faces in his cabinet said, “It is a record in the history of India, so far, no other state government has been able to form their government with a hundred percent of new faces in its cabinet.”

Bhandari, on the eve of vote counting in a press conference said that the historical 1989, the year Bhandari’s Sikkim Sangram Parishad party won all 32 seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat, would be repeated. But ironically, SDF repeated the history.

New faced Chaming cabinet

1) R.B.Subba - Roads and Bridges and Labour Departments

2) T.T.Bhutia - Water Security and Public Health Engineering and Transport Department

3) Dawa Norbu Takarpa - Health care, Human Services and Family welfare, Animal     Husbandry, Livestock, fisheries and Veterinary Services and Parliamentary Affairs Department.

4) Narendra Kumar Pradhan - Human Resource Development, Sports and Youths Affairs and Information Technology Department.

5) Dil Bahadur Thapa -Urban Development and Housing Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affair Department.

6) Sonam Gyatsho Lepcha - Energy and Power and Cultural Affairs and Heritage Department.

7) Chandra Bahadur Karki - Rural Management and Development and Cooperation Department.

8) Dawcho Lepcha -Food security and Agriculture Development and Horticulture and cash crop development ad cooperation department.

9) Bhim Prasad Dhungel - Tourism, Forest Environment and Wildlife Management Mines, Minerals and Geology and Science and Technology Department.

10) Tilu Gururng - Building and Housing Department 

11) Neeru Sewa - Commerce and Industries, Information and Public Printing and Stationery and Excise (Abkari) Department.

R. B. Subba, Sonam Gyatsho Lepcha, T. T. Bhutia, D. N. Takarpa, N. K. Pradhan, C. B. Karki, Dawcho Lepcha, B. P. Dhungle were MLAs of the last government whereas Neeru Sewa, Tilu Gurung are elected for the first time and simultaneously became ministers as well.

Target of  SDF government in the next five years

Chief Minster Chamling in the first cabinet meeting of his new government has passed many resolutions as the targets of his government. These are: 

1) The setting up of a state knowledge commission to produce the think-tank for the state and human resources.

2) Full-fledged starting of Pakyong Airport by 2011.

3) Welfare Commission for the welfare of physically challenged persons, widow and distress people.

4) Grievance Cell in every department.

5) Conducting of Municipality election in and around August.

6) Media centre to be set up in Gangtok.

The Chamling government, this time, has accorded much emphasis on human resource development. In this regard, a vocational training institute and independent capacity building training institute is to be set up. The government is also going to construct Mangan and Geyzing colleges and will start working on infrastructural development of Central University at Yang Yang. 

In an interaction with Eastern Panorama at Mintokgang, Chamling’s official residence, he also said that his new government will immediately start the work of hydal power projects, which was the most controversial issue in the state in the run-up to the elections. The SDF president also took the issue as a major challenge as the Lepcha community which is a native tribe of the state are hostile towards the Chamling government and have been maintaining an indefinite hunger strike for about two years in opposition against these projects. 

Once the projects are commissioned, the Chief Minister said that they would start generating more than 47 thousand MW of electricity which would enhance the per capita income by 80 thousand to one lakh rupees for the people of the state thereby making it the highest per capita income in the country.

Chamling is right in his remark in the run-up to elections where he always said there was not yet a person of his stature. This has been fully vindicated as in the state there are many national parties such as BJP, CPIM, Congress and NCP and regional parties such as SHRP, SNPP and SGPP. However, these parties were active only during the elections and at other times they never bothered to go to the public, nor have they raised any public related issues.

D. B. Rai