113 Independents for 70 zilla berths going to polls today

GANGTOK, 02 Nov: The zilla panchayat elections all set for tomorrow also has a good many independent candidates in the fray. There are a total of 113 independent candidates contesting the zilla panchayat seats and also 1 state Congress candidate who is contesting the Rey Rumtek zilla territorial constituency in East district. The total number of contesting seats in the zilla panchayats this year is 70 out of a total of 108; the SDF has already won 38 of these seats uncontested.
The East district has the highest number of independents at 48 for the 26 zilla seats going to poll. 6 have already been bagged by the SDF. There are as many as 12 constituencies which have 3 or more candidates and in fact there are two constituencies namely Samdong Rakdong and Chalamthang Pacheykhani which have 6 candidates contesting. One constituency, Lingtam Pacheykhani has 5 candidates.
South district has 25 independent candidates for the total 15 zilla panchayat constituencies. SDF has already won 13 constituencies uncontested. There are 8 constituencies which have 3 or more candidates contesting. One constituency, Kolthang Manzing has no SDF candidate.
In West district there are as many as 31 independent candidates for the 23 zilla constituencies going to polls. SDF has already bagged 5 uncontested. Of these there are 6 constituencies which have 3 or more candidates contesting.
North district has only 9 independent candidates for the 6 zilla seats with the SDF already bagging 14 seats uncontested. There are 3 zilla wards which have 3 or more contesting candidates.