BJP bags 2, CM Golay wins in Sikkim bypoll

GANGTOK: The BJP created history of sorts in Sikkim as it bagged two of the three assembly seats in the by-poll results declared on Thursday. The BJP, which earlier polled less than 2 percent votes in the assembly elections, had tied up with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) party and contested from two of the three seats that went for voting on October 21.
The party’s candidates - Sonam Tshering Venchungpa won from Martam-Rumtek and Yong Tshering Lepcha won from the Gangtok seat. With the win in two seats, the BJP now has 12 MLAs in the 32-member assembly as 10 Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) legislators had earlier defected to the BJP in August.
Chief minister and SKM president Prem Singh Tamang (Golay), who contested from Poklok-Kamrang with the BJP’s backing, defeated SDF candidate Moses Rai with a landslide margin by polling around 80 percent of votes. Tamang was yet to be elected as MLA owing to the ECI bar on his contesting after being convicted and incarcerated in a corruption case earlier in 2018. He was given a clean chit by the poll panel a day before he filed the nomination on September 30.
Supporters of both the SKM and BJP celebrated the victory in capital Gangtok and Namchi, the south district headquarters falling under Poklok-Kamrang constituency. Chief Minister Golay thanked the supporters and said the Pawan Chamling led SDF has now been consigned to history.
In Gangtok, Sikkim BJP president D.B. Chauhan said the BJP will work in tandem with the SKM government for the development of Sikkim and fulfillment of several pending demands of the State before the Centre. “The SKM- BJP alliance was not liked by many opposition parties but the voters of these three constituencies have proved them wrong and have supported the concept of development and have also understood and voted for nationalism,” he said.