Independents fail to open Zilla account in West Sikkim this time as well

GANGTOK, 05 Nov: Independents drew an embarrassing blank at the Zilla level in West district yet again, handing the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front a flawless sweep of the 23 Zilla Territorial Constitutions which required elections and were counted today. With this, SDF candidates now sit in all the 28 Zilla wards of the West district, after having already won 5 of these uncontested. In the panchayat elections of 2007 too independent candidates had not been able to win any of the 8 Zilla constituencies which had been contested that year.
The DC, West, LB Chettri, who is also the Returning Officer for the district, when contacted, further confirmed that of the 136 Panchayat wards which were contested, the SDF won 118 while the Independent candidates bagged a total of 18 Panchayat wards in the district. With this, SDF has secured 299 of the 317 panchayat wards in West Sikkim. In the last panchayat elections in 2007, Independents had won 11 of the 283 wards the district had at the time and the Congress had won One.
The contests were extremely close in some of the Independent wins which went down right to the wire. At Toyang ward for instance, Puran Kumar Darjee, an Independent candidate who bagged 104 votes edged past SDF’s Mangal Singh Kami by a solitary vote. At Baiguney ward, Independent Sita Rai won against Ramala Rai by a solitary vote again with 93 and 92 votes respectively. At Gelling Samsing, SDF’s Babita Sharma found her 96 votes just two short of the 98 votes which posted Independent Bishnu Sharma as the winner.
It was further informed by the DC, West, that the counting process was smooth and without incident. The counting process began at 8 AM and was completed by around 7 PM.