Election special..

<<HOW SIKKIM HAS VOTED

Intro: Sikkim will go to poll on 12 April 2014. In keeping with the mood, we bring to our readers, on one election per day basis, a look back at Assembly elections in Sikkim since 1979 when the first elections as a part of India were held in the State. The daily capsule will cover one election per day and provide details like the names of victors and runners-up from all 32 constituencies and their respective vote-share. The constituencies had different names and boundaries before 2009 when the new delimitation came into effect. The rest of the country might be undertaking opinion polls and poll projections, but at NOW! we believe that going over past records can help make better sense of ongoing issues and trends.

We hope our readers enjoy this exercise as much as we enjoyed putting it together. We begin the series with Election 1994.

Elections 1994

Total number of voters: 2,17,743 [M: 1,14,315; F: 1,03,428]

Parties in the fray: Sikkim Sangram Parishad, Sikkim Democratic Front, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janta Party, and CPI-M.

Participation in the election process spiked again in 1994. The number of voters crossed the 2 lakh mark and the number of contestants for the 32 seats jumped from 118 in 1989 to a respectable 186. Interestingly, in 1994, there were more independent candidates in the fray than those fielded by political parties. Between them, the six parties participating in the elections had 74 candidates against the 76 independents. As anyone who remembers that time 20 years back will vouch, there was much at stake. And as the results bore out, Sikkim changed after that election.

Voter Turnout: 81.76% [M: 83.72%; F: 79.59%]

OUTCOME: In 1994, the Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front was riding a wave of resentment against the Nar Bahadur Bhandari government. This wave had ebbed a bit when Mr. Bhandari was toppled by his own legislators earlier that year and deposed. For the last six months, there was a Congress government in place headed by Sanchaman Limboo in Sikkim. This must have disoriented the SDF strategy which was built around removing Bhandari from power. Be that as it may, everyone in Sikkim was also aware of Mr. Bhandari’s tenacity; he had after all been deposed in 1984 as well only to return with a resounding 31/32 victory in the 1985 elections. 1994 was a politically very charged time and as mentioned, SDF rode a popular wave. People know that SDF won the elections, but as the below table will bear out, it barely managed to replace SSP. Although SSP saw its vote-share halve from around 70% in 1989 to 35% in 1994. Although SSP was voted out of power, this was not Mr. Bhandari’s worst performance [that would come a decade later], and was in fact better that Mr. Bhandari’s SJP did in 1979 when it got 32% of the votes and emerged as the single largest party in Sikkim and formed a coalition government. In 1994 however, SDF did better than SSP and secured 42% of the votes cast which translated into 19 seats, three more than the halfway mark of 16. The party barely made it. The Revolutionary Socialist Party and Independents shared nearly 11 per cent of the votes between them. The jury is still out on who would have benefitted if they had not been in the picture. In 1994, a political upset was pulled off again in a three-cornered race. Congress, although it bagged only 15% of the votes [which translated to two seats] was still a force to reckon with in Sikkim at the time and mixed up the electorate enough to make every vote count. The fight was keen and though SDF established a strong performance in South and West Sikkim, constituencies in East and North saw close battles with margins in the two digits in many constituencies. The slimmest margin was in SDF’s victory at Loosing-Pacheykhani where DB Thapa won by 12 votes against JK Bhandari. An election later, in 1999, JK Bhandari would score an even more sensational victory when he beat SDF’s Vinod Pradhan by a mere 5 votes. These were still paper ballot times and the counting was done, SDF emerged victorious with 19 seats, SSP came second with 10 seats, Congress had 2 and there was One Independent in the Assembly.

This is how Sikkim voted in 1994…

Constituency	Winner [with party and vote share in brackets]	Runner-up [with party and vote share in brackets]
Yuksom	Ashok Kumar Subba [Indp, 40.71%]	Sanchaman Subba [INC, 38.07%]
Tashiding (ST)	Thutop Bhutia [SSP, 36.04%]	Rinzing Wangyal Kazi [SDF, 33.14%]
Geyzing	Dal Bahadur Gurung [SDF, 51.27%]	Dal Bahadur Karki [SSP, 25.01%]
Dentam	Chakra Bahadur Subba [SDF, 40.84%]	Padam Lal Gurung [SSP, 34.34%]
Barmiok	Tulshi Pd. Pradhan [SDF, 43.49%]	Birendra Subba [SSP, 33.63%]
Rinchenpong (ST)	Phur Tshering Lepcha [SDF, 60.39%]	Phurba Sherpa [SSP, 27.64%]
Chakung	Prem Singh Tamang [SDF, 59.48%]	Tika Gurung [SSP, 31.15%]
Soreong	Nar Bahadur Bhandari [SSP, 51.83%]	Man Bahadur Subba [SDF, 45.46%]
Daramdin	Ran Bahadur Subba [SDF, 62.30%]	Padam Bahadur Gurung [SSP, 32.87%]
Jorthang-Nayabazar	Bhoj Raj Rai [SDF, 59%]	Dil Kumari Bhandari [SSP, 35.73%]
Ralong (ST)	Dorjee Dazom Bhutia [SDF, 42.73%]	Ugen Tashi Bhutia [SSP, 25.73%]
Wak	Kedar Nath Rai [SDF, 53.02%]	Bedu Singh Panth [SSP, 33.85%]
Damthang	Pawan Kumar Chamling [SDF, 70.27%]	Kumar Subba [SSP, 26.33%]
Melli	Girish Chandra Rai [SDF, 52.63%]	Manita Pradhan [SSP, 36.46%]
Rateypani-West Pendam (SC)	Aita Singh Kami [SDF, 55.64%]	Madan Kumar Cintury [SSP, 35.68%]
Temi-Tarku	Garjaman Gurung [SDF, 57.20%]	Indra Bahadur Rai [SSP, 37.54%]
Central Pendam-East Pendam	Dilli Pd Kharel [SDF, 35.85%]	Sang Dorjee Tamang [SSP, 33.45%]
Rhenock	Kharananda Upreti [SSP, 46.52%]	Biraj Adhikari [SDF, 32.76%]
Regu	Karna Bahadur Chamling [SDF, 49.16%]	Krishna Bahadur Rai [SSP, 45.70%]
Pathing (ST)	Ram Lepcha [SSP, 43.40%]	Sonam Dorjee [SDF, 30.56%]
Loosing-Pacheykhani	Dil Bahadur Thapa [SDF, 31.30%]	Jai Kumar Bhandari [SSP, 31.05%]
Khamdong (SC)	Gopal Lamichney [SDF, 52.21%]	Ganju Thatal [SSP, 34.66%]
Djongu (ST)	Sonam Choda Lepcha [INC, 40.32%]	Sonam Dorjee Lepcha [SSP, 39.10%]
Lachen-Mangshila (ST)	Hishey Lachungpa [SDF, 45.42%]	Tseten Lepcha [INC, 27.85%]
Kabi Tingda (ST)	Thenlay Tshering Bhutia [SDF, 39.05%]	Thukchuk Lachungpa [INC, 37.66%]
Rakdong Tintek (ST)	Mingma Tshering Sherpa [SSP, 54.54%]	Phuchung Bhutia [INC, 16.93%]
Martam (ST)	Dorjee Tshering Lepcha [SSP, 49.97%]	Samten Tshering Bhutia [SDF, 27.85%]
Rumtek (ST)	Menlom Lepcha [SSP, 43.87%]	Karma Tempo Namgyal Gyaltsen [SDF, 29.44%]
Assam Lingjey (ST)	Tseten Tashi [SSP, 31.68%]	Namgyal Bhutia [SDF, 27.93%]
Ranka (ST)	Rinzing Ongmu [SSP, 37.56%]	Tseten Lepcha [SDF, 37.25%]
Gangtok	Narendra Kumar Pradhan [SSP, 39.55%]	Dilli Prasad Dhungel [INC, 26.26%]
Sangha	Namkha Gyaltsen [SSP, 47.08%]	Palden Lama [SDF, 39.47%]