SDF banking on Bhaichung Bhutia's popularity, young candidates to win Sikkim Assembly polls
The Hindu
SDF is banking on Bhaichung Bhutia’s popularity and young candidates in most Assembly constituencies to return to power.
The opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by five-time former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling is banking on ex-India footballer Bhaichung Bhutia's popularity and young candidates in most Assembly constituencies to return to power in the Himalayan state.
The SDF also wants to utilise the anti-incumbency factor against the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and fear among local people that the special status of Sikkim under Article 371 (F) of the Constitution and its old laws will be diluted if either the SKM or BJP come to power in the northeastern state, to win votes.
Elections to the 32-member Sikkim Assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state will be held on April 19.
The SDF which ruled the Himalayan state for 25 years from 1994 to 2019, lost to Prem Singh Tamang-led SKM in the last Assembly elections.
To give the SKM a tough fight in the Assembly polls, Chamling roped in former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia, a popular person in the Himalayan state to chart a new course in state politics.
Forty-five-year-old Bhutia buried all his differences with the SDF supremo and merged his party, Hamro Sikkim, with the SDF.
A grateful Chamling immediately rewarded the former footballer with the post of the SDF vice-president and party ticket to contest the Assembly elections.
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