Bhaichung Bhutia lays claim to flag andlegacy of Nar Bahadur Bhandari’s party
Looks like former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia is going to be a serious full-time politician. His Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP), formed in 2018, has adopted the flag of the Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP). The party is one of five Sikkim political parties that were delisted by the Election Commission in September. He is now taken the mantle of SSP founder Nar Bahadur Bhandari who was the first chief minister of Sikkim and expired in 2017. The Hamro Sikkim Party or HSP holds Bhandari in high esteem and would like to take his legacy forward. The takeover is going to heat the political climate of Sikkim and lead to new permutations and combinations. Most parties who once came to power remained in power for long. Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by Pawan Chamling is a strong contender and biggest challenger to the ruling SKM. Pawan Chamling ruled the state for 34 years and is credited with several revolutionary policies like turning it into an organic state and making it the first state in the country with zero kuchcha houses.
Though Bhaichung Bhutia’s celebrity status helps but he will have to show to bring about a radical change in Sikkim which is at the moment reeling under high inflation and unemployment rate and the present Golay government is drawing flak for it.After Sikkim became India’s 22nd state in 1975, it held its first assembly election in 1979. Bhandari became chief minister for the first time and later formed SSP. He merged SSP with congress but later left it. The SSP went on to win the 1985 and 1989 Sikkim assembly elections. The party finally lost power to the Sikkim Democratic Front in 1994. However, the SSP in the 2004 election, supported a new party, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, with which Bhandari was associated. SKM is presently in power. The HSP, meanwhile, was started by footballer- turned-politician Bhutia in 2018. In the 2019 assembly election, the party nominated candidates in 24 constituencies but lost all of them. In the 2019 by-polls for the Gangtok and Martam-Rumptek assembly seats too, HSP fielded two candidates including Bhutia (for Gangtok) but didn’t win either. So as things stand today Pawan Chamling seems to be having a good shot at the 2024 assembly elections. But can he get past Golay and Baichung only time will tell?
