Headlines       Vol. 2 Issue 3-4

May 22-June 6 , 1999

SDF choses Dahal to contest Sikkim's lone Lok Sabha seat Sikkim Chief Minister and Sikkim Democratic Front supremo Pawan Chamling has decided to renominate outgoing Lok Sabha member Bhim Prashad Dahal as the party's candidate for the State's lone Lok Sabha seat in the coming parliamentary elections. Welcoming the Election Commission's decision to hold simultaneous polls in the State, the SDF supremo said that the party would field Mr. Dahal as the SDF candidate for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls in Sikkim. The Sikkim Chief Minister however ruled out any pre-poll alliance with any regional or national party either for the parliamentary or the Assembly polls.Mr. Chamling said that the party was confident of grassroot support and need not force any electoral alliance with any party. They will go it alone in the simultaneous polls in the State. Incidentally, for the outgoing SDF MP, this will be his third nomination in as many years. In 1996, he was elected with a handsome margin defeating the former chief minister and main opposition Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) chief Nar Bahadur Bhandari. He retained the Lok Sabha seat again in 1998 defeating yet another former chief minister and Congress leader Sancha Man Limbo. Mr. Chamling said, “All along we were for early polls in the State, which was scheduled to go for in November-December this year. However, with the dissolution of the 12th Lok Sabha, the State will also go for simultaneous polls”. He said the SDF was prepared to face the Sikkimese electorate after the successful completion of its first term in the office. “We pride ourselves in having restored democracy in the State, which became a part of the Indian Union on merger in 1975,” he said. Meanwhile, the opposition SSP is yet to announce its candidate for the parliamentary polls. It has, however, announced several candidates for the ensuing Assembly polls, including the State's Bhutia-Lepcha reserved seats. There are 12 reserved tribal seats, one scheduled caste seat and a lone monastic sangha seat reserved for Buddhist monks, besides 18 general seats in a house of 32.

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