Tuesday, March 17, 2015

BJP-SKM alliance set to continue for municipal elections

As things stand, the BJP-SKM alliance, struck for the first time for the bye-elections at Rangang-Yangang constituency last year, will continue for the upcoming urban local body polls as well. Senior SKM leaders have confirmed to NOW! that the alliance for the municipal elections has been finalized and will be announced shortly. The alliance has been formalized to the level of seat-sharing formula, it is informed.
The continuance of the alliance was confirmed in New Delhi through a series of meetings between SKM leaders and MLAs with the BJP’s central leadership earlier this week. The SKM MLAs, it may be informed, have been camped in Delhi for more than a week now, reportedly to carry through the negotiations with BJP.
Meanwhile, the formal announcement of the alliance is expected to be made in Gangtok in end-March, sources in the BJP inform.
The saffron party has been around organizationally in Sikkim for some years but is yet to make any substantive inroads politically. A continuing alliance with a party which made a handsome debut in the last Assembly elections, even though the alliance did not work any magic for the bye-elections, could be the way to go for a party keen to debut a party candidate in any elected office in Sikkim.
Sources inform that the BJP-SKM alliance has been worked out on a 70:30 seat sharing ratio with SKM understandably fielding the higher number of candidates. For the Rangang-Yangang bye-elections, the former SKM candidate had joined BJP and was fielded as a BJP candidate supported by SKM. His vote-share had come down even as the constituency, from where the Chief Minister had won, was won by an Independent candidate.
A senior SKM leader informed that the alliance was finalized at a “closed-door” meeting between the BJP Organisation General Secretary Ram Mahadev and SKM MLAs in New Delhi. The alliance has also been approved by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP party president Amit Shah, it is further informed.
Mr. Mahadev is expected to visit Sikkim in end-March to take party organization forward and is expected to make the announcement on the alliance at that time, sources in the BJP inform. Although the BJP-Sikkim president refused to comment on this development, he did confirm that the party’s state committee members had attended the closed door meeting with SKM MLAs and BJP central leaders in Delhi.
The State government could declare the municipal elections anytime after the two-day Assembly next week. The state government has decided to place only Vote on Accounts for another six months as the state’s plan size has not yet been finalized for the financial year 2015-16.
[VISHNU NEOPANEY]

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