Once the longest-serving CM, Pawan Kumar Chamling loses from both seats in Sikkim

Former Chief Minister and Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) supremo Pawan Kumar Chamling, lost both the seats he was contesting from in the 32-member Sikkim Assembly as results were declared on June 2.

Mr. Chamling lost to Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) candidate Raju Basnet by 2,256 votes in the Namcheybung seat. In the Poklok Kamrang Assembly constituency, he lost to Bhoj Raj Rai of SKM by 3,063 votes.

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According to the Election Commission of India data, the SKM won 19 Assembly seats and was leading in 12 other constituencies. Interestingly, Tenzing Norbu Lamtha, the lone SDF candidate who won the Shyari seat, switched over from SKM ahead of the Assembly polls after being denied a ticket.

Pawan Kumar Chamling made history on April 29, 2018, when he became the longest-serving Chief Minister in the country after surpassing the record set by the late Jyoti Basu of West Bengal. The SDF supremo is a five-time Chief Minister with his party Sikkim Democratic Front winning the 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014 Sikkim Legislative Assembly elections. He represented the Damthang constituency from 1985 to 1994 and the Namchi-Singhithang constituency in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly since 2019. 

Mr. Chamling started his political career at the age of 32. He served as a Minister under Nar Bahadur Bhandari’s Sikkim Sangram Parishad government from 1989 to 1992. He formed the Sikkim Democratic Front in March 1993. Mr. Chamling is also a poet and lyricist in the Nepali language.

What changed?

In the 2014 elections, the SKM surprised everyone by winning 10 of the 32 seats. Considering that in the 2004 and 2009 elections, the SDF won 31 and 32 seats respectively, the SKM’s result was a cause for concern for the SDF. However, defections eventually reduced the SKM’s representation in the State Assembly to just three members.

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In 2019, the seemingly invincible SDF suffered a dramatic defeat at the hands of the SKM led by Prem Singh Golay, a former SDF strongman and one-time close aide of Mr. Chamling. The SKM, riding on a “parivartan” (change) wave, won 17 of the 32 Assembly seats and the SDF secured 15 seats. 

While the SDF’s election plank was peace, stability, and development in the last 25 years, the SKM focussed on the rising anti-incumbency sentiment and allegations of corruption and nepotism against the ruling party.

Explaining the possible reasons for losing in the 2019 Assembly polls, senior SDF leader and former Lok Sabha member Prem Das Rai toldFrontline: “There was a strong narrative for change, and there was a lag in our understanding and reaching out to the young generation, who did not understand the changes that the SDF brought about through development. There were also some inherent problems within the party. Ours is an old party and probably needs to adapt more quickly to the changing times in its style of functioning.”

Mr. Chamling resigned as CM after the 2019 Sikkim Assembly election as Prem Singh’s SKM formed the government by winning 17 seats out of 32. SDF won the remaining 15 seats. Later in August 2019, 10 MLAs quit Mr. Chamling’s party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and in the same month, two other legislators joined SKM, making Mr. Chamling only MLA of the party.