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‘Obviously’: BJP responds to buzz that it wants to be part of Sikkim cabinet
BJP’s Sikkim in-charge Sukanta Majumdar said its alliance with SKM is intact but added that “but it will depend on the SKM if it continues.
SILIGURI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants chief minister Prem Singh Tamang to induct some of its lawmakers into his council of ministers, a senior party leader confirmed on Monday in response to swirling rumours in Gangtok about tension with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM).
“Obviously, if our alliance partner considers ourselves worthy of getting ministers. We have conveyed our message to the SKM and the chief minister PS Golay (Prem Singh Tamang) and now the ball is in their court,” Sukanta Majumdar, the BJP’s Sikkim in-charge said when asked if his party wanted to be part of the council of ministers.
“The party has conveyed its message to the chief minister and I think he will consider all those things positively for the betterment of the state.”
To be sure, the ruling SKM has a majority on its own with 19 MLAs in the 32-member assembly. The BJP, with its 12 MLAs, is in an alliance with the SKM but is not a part of the government in the eastern Himalayan state. There is just one opposition legislator in Sikkim; former chief minister Pawan Chamling who founded Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) that ruled the state for five straight terms from 2014.
On Sunday, the BJP delivered a 48-hour public ultimatum to government led by chief minister PS Tamang, better known as PS Golay, to resolve the problems of agitating adhoc teachers who are on indefinite hunger strike seeking continuation of their services till interviews are held.
If the ultimatum goes unheard and no concrete steps are taken, the BJP will come out more strongly on the issue, BJP’s Sikkim unit spokesperson Raju Giri warned.
The warning on Sunday triggered speculation that not everything was hunky dory in the alliance and the ultimatum was a tactic to pressure the coalition government to induct BJP lawmakers into the council of ministers.
Majumdar, who is the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal’s Balurghat seat, brushed aside speculation about cracks in the alliance, but added there may be a “misunderunderstanding”.
“Some misunderstanding may be there, otherwise it is okay. We are in alliance with the SKM, but we are not in the government. We have the right to raise the issues related with the people of Sikkim and that is what we are doing.”
He added that the BJP wants the alliance with the SKM to continue “but it depends upon the SKM.”
SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling said there was no problem between the two. “The SKM has good rapport with the BJP and is running the government with good understanding with BP leaders.”
In the May 2019 elections, the SKM won 17 of the state’s 32 seats while the Chamling’s SDF won 15. Two SDF and one SKM lawmakers, however, had to resign since the three of them had won from two seats. Later, the SKM led by PS Tamang (Golay) fought the by-elections for three assembly seats as an alliance partner of the BJP. The BJP won two seats while SKM won the third seat. In August 2019, 10 MLAs of the opposition SDF joined the BJP while two joined the ruling SKM.
