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SDF starts with clear edge over Cong in Sikkim
The Sikkim Democratic Front starts with a clear edge over its main rival the Cong, virtually winning 4 out of total 32 assembly seats.
The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) starts with a clear edge over its main rival the Congress virtually winning four out of the total 32 assembly seats where no contestants are left in the fray for the May 10 polls in the state.
These seats include the prestigious Damthang constituency of south Sikkim from where the SDF president and Chief Minister Pawan Chamling is in the ring to make it to the state assembly for the fifth time.
The advantage came SDF's way when Palden Bhutia, the Congress candidate from the reserved Kabi-Tingda seat did not file his papers on the last day for filing of nominations in Sikkim on April 23. He was the lone candidate to enter the fray against the SDF nominee from this constituency.
In the course of scrutiny just a day later nominations of Congress nominees from Damthang, Wok and Melli were rejected virtually giving SDF three more seats.
While at Damthang, Wok and Kabi-Tingda SDF was pitted only against Congress, it had one opponent left in Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad's (SHRP) Bhim Kumar Rai at Melli.
But Rai also withdrew his nomination on Monday paving the way for yet another straight win for the SDF which has been in power for the last two consecutive terms in the Himlayan state.
Sikkim will elect its seventh assembly, besides vote for its lone Lok Sabha representative in the last phase of polling on May 10.
Conscious of this pre-poll advantage, the mood in the SDF camp is obviously upbeat with party leaders confident of bagging all the 32 seats.
"While the four straight wins are a clear indication that we start our campaign for the coming polls on a winning note, there is also a strong wave in favour of SDF due to its performance during its ten years in office," party spokesman and Rajya Sabha member P T Gyamtso told PTI.
"Going by the mood of the people it seems we are heading for a thumping majority from all the seats," he said claiming SDF will win "hands down" all constituencies of the north, south and west districts.
The party, he claimed, will also record smooth victories in most of the east district seats, except a couple of them where some kind of a contest is expected.
The seats where the party expects some fight are Central Pendam and Gangtok in east Sikkim, where Opposition leader and former Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari is in the fray.
In the two seats the contest would be somewhat difficult not only due to the presence of Bhandari, a Congress heavyweight, but also because SDF had lost both of them in the last assembly polls in 1999.
