PREM Singh Tamang Sworn In as Sikkim’s CM

PREM Singh Tamang, 51 years old Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) president, on Monday took oath as the Chief Minister of Sikkim in Nepali language succeeding Pawan Kumar Chamling. Chamling was the longest serving CM of the hilly state bordering China, Nepal, Bhutan and North Bengal. He is son of Nepali parents, Kalu Singh Tamang and Dhan Maya Tamang. Golay graduated from a college in Darjeeling and joined as a teacher in a state-run school. He quit the government service three years later to take up social service before joining SDF.The three-decade political journey of Golay has been eventful. He was elected to the Sikkim Assembly for five terms in a row since 1994 and served as a minister in the SDF government till 2009. He was Chamling’s trusted colleague.  Hundred of his loyalists greeted him as he took oath, reports The Hindu. The SKM supremo, accompanied by the 17 newly-elected legislators of his party, on Saturday had called on the Governor and staked claim to form the next government in Sikkim. Prasad had reportedly told the SKM delegation to wait for his decision as he sought legal opinion on the matter as Golay had been convicted to a year’s imprisonment in a corruption case in 2016 and had served the prison term, sources said. After getting the legal opinion, the Governor invited Golay to form the next government, the Raj Bhavan source added. The SKM, founded in 2013, has won seats in the 32-member Sikkim legislative assembly .Golay did not contest the assembly polls to devote all his time to campaign for his party. The outgoing CM   and another minister have won from two constituencies. Constitutionally, they can represent only one constituency each. Since 1975, Sikkim has had five chief ministers. The first was Kazi Lhendup Dorjee of the Indian National Congress. Pawan Kumar Chamling of the Sikkim Democratic Front was the longest serving Chief Minister of Sikkim from 1994-2019. Prem Singh Tamang who floated SKM in 2013 after breaking away from the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front, was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act and was acquitted only after serving a jail term in August 2018. The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), which won the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Sikkim, has decided to join the National Democratic Alliance, a party spokesperson said on Saturday.“Before the polls, we were in talks with the BJP for a pre-poll understanding but it did not come through. Now, we are happy to be part of NDA,” party spokesperson Jacob Khaling told The Hindu. Sikkim has only one Lok Sabha seat. It has been wrested by SKM’s Indra Hang Subba from Sikkim Democratic Front’s D.B. Katwal (edited by Pranab Kumar Chakravarty with inputs from various sources).