HOW SIKKIM VOTES

Going over 40 years of electoral democracy in Sikkim

On Saturday, the almost 3.7 lakh voters registered in Sikkim will get a chance to decide who represents them in the Assembly and in Parliament for the next five years. It is an important moment for Sikkim and voters here have always been energetic about exercising their right to vote and the State has consistently posted very high voter turnouts. Polling can be expected to be even more frenetic and active this time around, and in about a month, the world will know how Sikkim voted.

Although making predictions is very tempting, we engage in a different approach here and go over how Sikkim has voted in the past and what the important poll issues were in the fray. Going over past electoral performances is an interesting exercise in itself and viewing them in retrospect, weighing them against the dominant issues of the time, can also help engage in some projections on what will happen on 12 April, 2014.

1974 was the first time that the Sikkimese voted to elect representatives. The voting process was complex and the deciding of winners even more so, but this was still a major victory achieved by the LD Kazi led Sikkim National Congress. Sikkim, after all was not ignorant of the arrival of electoral democracy in India, and the SNC was rewarded for its achievement secured for the people with a clean sweep – it bagged 31 of the 32 seats, with the Sikkim National Party winning only one seat.

This pre-merger council was allowed to continue as the Legislative Assembly of Sikkim after 1975 and the next elections – the first as a part of democratic India were held in 1979. This was an interesting election. The present president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee, Nar Bahadur Bhandari, was fronting the Sikkim Janata Parishad at the time. He was campaigning on the plank of de-merger. Also the same year, a Bill seeking amendments to prepare Sikkim for its first elections as a part of India was placed in the Parliament. This Bill, which was to become infamous as the “Black Bill”, released the seats reserved for the Nepali community in the Assembly as general seats. The LD Kazi Government, already on extension, collapsed over night and the dissolution of the Nepali seats became an emotive political issue.

It thus so transpired that there were two major issue in the air in 1979, each promoted by a different political outfit and the results reflected this. The Bhandari-led SJP struck the halfway mark with MLAs, winning in 16 constituencies. RC Poudyal’s Sikkim Congress [Revolutionary], which had taken up the restoration of the Nepali seats as its main agenda, came in second with 11 MLAs. While SJP received 31.49% of the votes SC[R], received 20.58%. Mr. Bhandari went on to form the Government with the support of the One elected Independent and the 4 MLAs of the Sikkim Prajatantra Congress. This alignment would go on merge into the Congress [I].

Just as 1974 had won the people of Sikkim the right to vote, in 1979, the people realised that they could also contest, even as Independents. It has to be the excitement of exercising this new right that saw a staggering 108 Independents contest the 1979 elections. What is more, one of them even won. Between themselves, the Independents accounted for 16.50% of the votes, slightly fewer than Mr. Poudyal’s party and slightly more than the Janta Party into which LD Kazi had by then merged his party.

In 1984, Mr. Bhandari was dropped by the Congress high-command on corruption charges [resolved only recently with his conviction on two counts]. The move backfired politically and the Congress was soon reduced to a minority by a near complete defection into the new party launched by Mr. Bhandari - the Sikkim Sangram Parishad. In a way, the 1985 elections were about getting Mr. Bhandari back into power and the campaign was run in a strong anti-Delhi tone. It was thus a head-on collision between the SSP and the Congress [I] and the strong play on regional pride won – 30 SSP candidates won and the party polled 62.20% votes. The Congress could muster only one MLA with 24.15% of the votes and from among the 94 Independents, one won.

The 1989 elections in Sikkim are widely believed to have been less than fair with the rampant electoral mechanisations, dominant elsewhere in India at that time, also alleged in Sikkim. The list of candidates in fray reflects this to some extent. Till 1985, parties of all colours and a strong number Independents jumped into the electoral fray, but in 1989, the numbers dwindled drastically. In 1979, there were 244 candidates in the fray, in 1989, this dropped to 118. Only three regional political parties and Congress [I] fielded candidates. SSP bagged 70.41% of the votes.

When elections came calling again in 1994, the Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front wave had swept through Sikkim with its “Bhandari Hatao, Sikkim Bachao” slogan and promise of returning democracy to an oppressively stifled Sikkim. This wave was peaking at the time when the Income Tax issue ambushed Sikkim and Mr. Bhandari was dethroned by his own legislators. The SDF battle-cry against Bhandari lost some sting because he was already ousted. There were however two more issue in the electoral fire – Income Tax and a parallel move by Bhandari-adherents to get him back to power. Those must have been confusing times for the voters on how to vote and also the politicians on how to rally support. The confusion reflects in the vote-share because there appeared to be enough voters who wanted Mr. Bhandari’s second mid-term eviction from power to be avenged. The SDF wave however held strong and it emerged as the party with the largest vote share of 42% and 19 MLAs. SSP was close second with 35.08% of the votes and 10 MLAs and Congress, which was the caretaker government in power at the time, managing 15.02%. The number of candidates swelled to 186 in 1994.

The 1999 elections were seen as a vote on SDF’s performance in government and whether it had succeeded in institutionalising democracy as it had promised. The election was also promoted as a test on whether Mr. Bhandari still commanded a following in the State. SDF received a thumbs up with a majority shares of the votes at 52.32% and five more constituencies. The results also reflected that SSP was also still relevant because even it improved its vote share, although it recorded a drop in the number of MLAs this was good for. The Congress was no longer relevant, managing only 3.67% of the votes. Although 1 Independent candidate won, their participation had dropped to only 9 in 1999.

The elections in 2004 elections were still livelier in comparison. Free expression had gained ground in the 10 years that SDF had been in power and a healthier media had developed to report more extensively on the elections. There were many daily newspapers in Sikkim by 2004 and a resurgent Congress [I], with Mr. Bhandari in its fold along with a slew of disgruntled former SDF members kept up a ‘silent wave’ murmur. Its planning however left a lot to be desired and disorganisation led to 4 constituencies being won by the SDF without a contest even before the State went to polls. The list of candidates, apart from the heavyweights was lackluster across the board, but the contest was violent [by Sikkim standards till then] and the rumour mills kept busy. The electorate, however, had made up its mind. 71.09% of the votes – a record endorsement in Sikkim’s electoral history - were cast in favour of the SDF. The Congress managed only 26.13% and the others – BJP, CPM, SHRPP and SSP did not even break the double-digit mark, in fact, the other parties could not even convince 1% of the voters to vote for them.

2009 saw a replay of 2004 with SDF improving on its presence in the Assembly from 31 to a complete rout of 32/32. It is still fresh enough in people’s mind to require a recount at present. In a way, the situation from 2004 onwards has remained more or less unchanged with only the belligerence of campaigning and the aggression on display raised some notches and the rebellion from within SDF adding a new dimension to the equation. Media has also changed in the years and while this has definitely improved on the speed at which information is shared, it remains to be seen whether media has any influence on how Sikkim votes.

The state will vote today, Saturday, and aptly again [as in 2009], their verdict will be known on State Day, 16 May…

[The above is an edited and updated version of the article first published in NOW! issue dated 29 April 2009]

THIS IS HOW PARTIES PERFORMED IN SIKKIM ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN THE PAST 4 DECADES

1974

Sikkim National Congress: 31

Sikkim National Party: 1

Total: 32

1979

Party name           No. of              Number    No. of         %

                             Candidates       elected      Votes          share

CPI-M                  02                    00                  241             00.33%

INC                      12                    00                1,476           02.04%

JP                         30                    00                9534            13.18%

SSCL                    02                    00                   85               00.12%

SCR                      27                    11            14,889            20.58%

SJP                      31                    16            22,776         31.49%

SPC                     32                    04            11,400         15.76%

Indp                     108                  01            11,938             16.50%

Total:                   244                  32            72,339

1985

CPI                       02                    00            25               00.03%

CPI-M                   01                    00            336             00.35%

INC                       32                    01            23,440         24.15%

JP                         20                    00            913             00.94%

SPC                       14                    00            438             00.45%

SSP                       32                    30            60,371         62.20%

Indp                      94                    01            11,534         11.88%

Total:                    195                  32            97,057

1989

INC                       31                    00            24,121         18.05%

RSP                       31                    00            11,472         08.59%

SSP                       32                    32            94,078         70.41%

DPC                      04                    00            298             00.22%

Indp                      20                    00            3,650           02.73%

Total:                    118                  32            1,33,619

1994

BJP                       03                    00            274             00.16%

CPI-M                   02                    00            270             00.16%

INC                       31                    02            26,045         15.02%

RSP                       11                    00            2,906           01.68%

SDF                      32                    19            72,856         42.00%

SSP                       31                    10            60,851         35.08%

Indp                      76                    01            10,255         05.91%

Total:                    186                  32            1,73,457

1999

CPI-M                   02                    00            398             0.19%

INC                       31                    00            7,512           3.67%

SDF                      31                    24            1,07,214      52.32%

SSP                       32                    07            85,827         41.88%

Indp                      09                    01            3,976           01.94%

Total:                    105                  32            2,04,927

2004

BJP                       04                    00            667             00.34%

CPI-M                   01                    00            144             00.07%

INC                       28                    01            51,329         26.13%

SDF                      32                    31            1,39,662      71.09%

SHRP                    09                    00            1,123           00.57%

SSP                       01                    00            90               0.05%

Indp                      16                    00            3,450           01.76

2009

BJP                       11                    00            1,966           00.78%

CPM                      03                    00            272             00.11%

INC                       32                    00            69,612         27.64%

NCP                      11                    00            1,065           01.19%

SDF                      32                    32            1,65,991      65.91%

SGPP                    27                    00            2,909           01.34%

SHRPP                  20                    00            5,516           02.19%

SJEP                     06                    00            497             00.20%

IND                       25                    00            4,023           01.60%

Total                     167                  32            2,51,851     

[CPI-M- Communist Party of India (Marxist; INC- Indian National Congress; JP- Janata Party; SSCL- Sikkim Scheduled Castes League; SCR- Sikkim Congress (Revolutionary); SJP- Sikkim Janata Parishad; SPC- Sikkim Prajatantra Congress; Indp- Independents; SSP- Sikkim Sangram Parishad; RSP- Rising Sun Party; DPC- Denzong Peoples Chogpi; BJP- Bharatiya Janata Party; RSP- Revolutionary Socialist Party; SDF- Sikkim Democratic Front; SJEP- Sikkim Jan Ekta Party; Sikkim Gorkha Prajatantrik Party]