The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) increased its tally to 31 seats in the Assembly elections 2024, up from 17 in 2019. In March, the BJP had called off its alliance with the SKM describing it as “corrupt”.
On the other hand, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which ruled the state for 25 years in a row till 2019, won one seat. In 2019, the party had won 15. This follows the trend of the SDF’s decline from 2009 when it won all seats in the State. Since 2014, when SDF first contested in the elections, the party has unseated the SKM from the Assembly.
The SKM flipped 15 seats from the SDF from 2019 with margins from 18.44% to 78.21%. The Djongu constituency was flipped with the largest margin of 78.21%.
In 2019, the difference between the SKM and the SDF’s vote shares was only 0.6 percentage points. This year, that share widened to 31.01 percentage points, with the SKM winning 58.38% of the votes and the SDF 27.37%. The SKM contested in the elections for the first time in 2014, bagging a vote share of around 41%.
The Indian National Congress won 0.32 % of the votes. The Congress vote share fell after 2009 from 27.64% to under 1% in 2019. The party has not won any seats after 2004, when it won one seat. The BJP, on the other hand, has never won a seat.
The party was formed in 2013 by Prem Singh Golay, the number-two man of the Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling from the SDF. While Chamling lost in both the constituencies he contested in, the current Chief Minister from SKM - P. S. Tamang won in both constituencies.
Published - June 02, 2024 05:47 pm IST
