New Delhi: Barely six months after having failed to win a single seat in the Sikkim assembly elections, the BJP has succeeded in opening its account in the Himalayan state.
Its candidate, Sonam Tsering Venchungpa, won the Martam-Rumtek seat by defeating the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) candidate Nuk Tsering Bhutia by 600 votes.
The national party could pocket the seat only after bringing Venchungpa into its fold just days before the elections from the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM). In the assembly polls held simultaneously with the general elections this past April-May, Venchungpa had won the Martam-Rumtek seat for the SKM.
After the win, BJP national secretary Ram Madhav tweeted:
Won the second seat also in Sikkim. In Gangtok seat the BJP won by 1000 votes. Hearty congrats to Sikkim BJP for winning both the contested seats. Congrats to CM Prem Singh Golay for winning the 3rd seat.
— Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) October 24, 2019
In Gangtok, the other assembly constituency where the BJP is contesting a bypoll, counting is still on. The Gangtok seat was also bagged by the SKM in the last polls.
The overall vote share of the BJP in the last polls was a little over 1% in the state. However, having formed the government at the Centre a second time, the BJP had more bargaining powers and could pull off a pre-poll alliance for the bypolls with SKM. As per the alliance, it contested two of the three assembly seats going to bypolls by principally banking on the SKM’s voter base. That the SKM chief and the chief minister P.S. Golay was in a spot of trouble over his jail term coming in the way of contesting to be able to retain the chair, is considered to have have helped the BJP along.
After the Election Commission of India used its discretionary powers to allow him to contest the bypolls, Golay filed his nomination papers from Poklok Kamrang seat. Today, he defeated his rival from the SDF by 8,953 votes. The seat was vacated by the former chief minister and SDF supremo Pawan Chamling as he had won from Namsai too.
Prior to this win, the BJP also managed to take away 10 MLAs from the SDF to become the largest opposition in the 32-member assembly from the backdoor.