A Triumphant Return of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and the Decimation of the Opposition – Sikkim Elections 2024

AMRIT SHARMA

The election results on the 2^nd of June 2024 came as a surprise to many in Sikkim. For the first time in Sikkim’s democratic history, the state had witnessed an election being contested by so many political parties. While the ruling Sikkim Karntikari Morcha (SKM) was a strong force – three other parties – Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Citizen Action Party (CAP) had also emerged as strong contenders in the political landscape.

In particular, the grand old party of Sikkim, SDF who had in the past ruled the state for a record 5 terms was seen to be making a strong comeback and had run a vigorous campaign with show of strength rallies, mass public meetings and an aggressive social media campaign. The Party President Former Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling had even addressed his cadre days before the counting assuring them that the party will be definitely forming the government and chalked out plans for what policies he intended to implement once in power. Even the BJP had run an active campaign and three of its stalwarts- State Party President, Mr D.R. Thapa, Mr Tseten Tashi Bhutia and Mr N.K. Subba all claimed to be winning from their seats. Despite CAP being such a young party, it had also fielded 30 candidates on the 32 legislative seats and had garnered a following among the public, especially the youth. So, the feeling was that the opposition would have an impact on the final results this time.

However, come counting day, from the very first round of counting, it was clear that SKM had a clear margin in almost all constituencies. And when the dust finally settled, SKM had secured a historic second term by winning 31 out of 32 seats, with record margins in most. SDF had to settle for a lone seat that too won by a candidate who had moved from SKM on the very day of ticket distribution. This tremendous mandate has not just secured SKM a second term but has firmly placed it as the strongest political force in the state barring none while completely decimating any viable opposition in the state. This will definitely have an impact on the 2029 elections as well.

How Did The Opposition Falter?

Since last year, there had been attempts made by SDF to unite the various opposition forces to fight as one against SKM. The move was partly successful with Bhaichung Bhutia merging his Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) with SDF but the other opposition parties resisted the move to unite. Hence, the scattered opposition voices in the state failed to come together and provide a real option for the public against SKM. The main opposition party SDF had revived its failing fortunes by creating a new narrative of SDF 2.0 led by youth with innovative ideas and a new approach to policy making. These young voices were at the front end of the one and half year campaign run by the party to present a new version of itself to the public. The Party President had even promised to give tickets to 80% youth in a media interview.

However, when it came to ticket distribution, hardly any of these new clean faces in politics were given tickets and the party chose to raise old trusted party leaders with a previous track record in most constituencies. When it came to women, the party did not give a single ticket to any women leaders of the party. This combined with the fact that the party chose to focus solely on the Party President Mr Chamling as the front face of the party closer to the election campaign, meant that the party could not deliver on the SDF 2.0 image it had projected to the public. The public had already rejected SDF and Mr Chamling in 2019 and its resurgence had mostly happened due to the new blood and the new ideas which had led the party in the last one and half years, so going back to its traditional form does not seem to have appealed to the public who were expecting a much reformed SDF. The fact that Mr Chamling a veteran political with 40 years of electoral victory under his belt and the honour of being India’s longest serving Chief Minister could not even save one of the two seats that he was contesting from, shows a clear public mandate against him.

As far as BJP goes, it was already fighting against the traditional backlash against regional parties in Sikkim which has remained a constant factor since the merger with India. To add to that, it adopted a combative style of campaigning by raining heavy allegations of corruption and incompetence against SKM and Chief Minister Mr Prem Singh Tamang (Golay). In fact, BJP State Incharge Mr Dilip Jaiswal went on to state that there was an empty cell next to Mr Arvind Kejriwal waiting for Mr Tamang in Tihar Jail, in one of his public addresses, while party spokespersons repeatedly threatened the use of the Enforcement Directorate against key SKM figures. This belligerent and threatening rhetoric against a sitting Chief Minister and local politicians especially by outsiders does not seem to have gone down well with the public, given the adverse reactions people have towards national parties in the state.

Also, BJP had managed to be in the coalition govt. last term not on its own steam but by taking over 10 SDF MLAs and winning two seats in the by-elections with the full support of SKM and its cadre. This time, SKM broke its alliance with BJP just before ticket distribution, while 3 BJP sitting MLAs resigned from BJP and came over to SKM where they were promptly given tickets. There was also a mass exodus of party cadre from BJP following these resignations. This meant a very depleted BJP with a vacuum of leaders as well as party cadre. If the BJP had decided to focus only on its stalwart candidates with a good voter base and had only given tickets to them, it would probably have fared better. Instead, it decided to import candidates from all parties and walks of life in a last minute effort to file 31 candidates. This led to a weak on ground campaign in all constituencies which are evident in the results – all 31 BJP candidates got fewer combined votes that the combined votes received by Mr Tamang from his two constituencies!

When it comes to CAP, they were already fighting a battle of perception. Since the launch of the party last year, a narrative was set that their time had not yet come but maybe they would be fit for 2029. But there was still hope that the key figure of the party, Mr Ganesh Rai would be victorious from his home ground – Melli constituency where his wife, Mrs Tulsi Devi Rai had previously won two terms under SDF. There was also hope that their MP candidate, Mr Bharat Basnett, former Congress State President and well known in Sikkim for his pro-Sikkimese stance, could win the lone MP seat as he had been fighting for Sikkim-centric issues for decades and had popular support. However, they had an abysmal first innings with only Mr Basnett giving any fight with the rest of the party garnering less than 6% of the total vote share.  This is not unsurprising in a state where almost 80/85% of the people are directly or indirectly dependent on the govt. in some way or form. Whether it be for public benefits and schemes, govt. jobs, bank subsidies, work-orders etc, one needs the recommendation of an elected representative. Hence when the narrative was already set that they are not going to form the govt. the public decided to back candidates who they thought had a chance at forming the govt. This same narrative holds true for the one strong independent candidate in the fray these polls.

Factors for SKM’s Historic Win

Mr Prem Singh Tamang’s approach can best be described as hands on. In his last term, he held countless public meets all over Sikkim where he went directly to the public and met thousands of people at a time where he sanctioned applications for jobs, Garib Awas Yojna schemes, medical reimbursements, transfers and the like. These meets allowed him to interact directly with the public and created an image of him being an accessible and down to earth Chief Minister. This coupled with his young image put him in stark contrast to his biggest opponent Mr Chamling, who has had a reputation of being aloof and unapproachable. Mr Chamling tried very hard to shake off this image this campaign and went out to the public but a four-decade image is hard to shake. Sikkim has historically always rallied around the dynamic leadership of a single leader no matter which party came to power. Mr Nar Bahadur Bhandari was the reason being the electoral victories of his era while Mr Chamling was the sole face during his time. Now Mr Tamang seems to have firmly taken that coveted place in the people’s imagination.

SKM party also cobbled together a good list of candidates from all walks of life – from former bureaucrats, former MLA’s from other parties, four women candidates and a balanced representation across all communities and castes. This balance was missing in all other parties and that seems to have been the messaging that the public bought.

Also, SKM ran a very balanced campaign against the usual community politics that had dominated the state for decades. No candidates asked public for votes based on their community or caste nor did they try and take the help of community associations during their campaigns. This is evident in the vote shares across constituencies where SKM candidates have gotten votes cutting across community lines. This is most evident in Rhenock constituency, a constituency dominated by Sikkimese Nepali Chettri-Bahuns and traditionally a bastion for leaders from that constituency. Fears were raised about Mr Tamang’s candidacy from there that the community might vote in favour of his rival, based on him being from the same community. But the results show that they overwhelmingly voted in favour of Mr Tamang and community politics had no role to play. This marks a total shift in the way politics has been conventionally played in Sikkim and it will also shape a change in the way future elections are fought in the state. All these factors plus the advantage of being the incumbent govt. played a role in the landslide victory enjoyed by SKM these elections.

SKM has created history with its triumphant win and this term they find themselves in a comfortable majority with no need of any ally nor being bogged down by dissidents so it should be able to fulfil its promises to the people without any pressures from outside political forces. Mr Tamang in his victory address stressed that he is going to give first priority to Roads, Drinking Water and Electricity and that he will work hard to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people and make create a ‘Sunawlo Sikkim’ (a golden state). All of Sikkim is hopeful he will live up to his promise.

(Amrit Sharma has a Masters in English from Hindu College, Delhi University and a Masters in Mass Communications from M.C.R.C, Jamia. He worked in NDTV and then went on to Head Communications in Multi-national companies in Delhi, Spain, Switzerland and U.K. He recently moved back to Sikkim and currently runs a Homestay in Gangtok. Views are personal. Email: amritsikkim@gmail.com)