NEW DELHI, June 10
Prem Singh Tamang Oath Ceremony 2024 Live: Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) convenor Prem Singh Tamang is set to take oath as the chief minister of the Himalayan state for the second consecutive term on Monday. “My priorities are water, electricity, roads, education, health and infrastructure development…” Tamang said speaking to the media, as he came to attend the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi in Delhi on Sunday.
Tamang and his Council of Ministers will be administered the oath of office at the Paljor stadium in Gangtok. The swearing-in ceremony will commence at 4 pm and will likely be attended by around 30,000 people.
The ruling SKM secured a resounding victory in the state, clinching a landslide win by capturing 31 out of 32 seats in the assembly elections. In contrast, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) only managed to secure a victory in the Shyari constituency. Tamang emerged victorious in the Rhenock constituency, decisively defeating his SDF rival Som Nath Poudyal by a margin of 7,044 votes. Furthermore, SDF supremo Pawan Chamling, who had led his party to five terms in power from 1994 to 2019, suffered defeat in both seats he had contested from.
During the SKM’s tenure, between 2019 and 2024, the state witnessed violence against political activities and students. The SKM government was criticised for how it handled these incidents. Therefore, one of the SDF’s main political promises was to bring peace back to the state, so much so that this was the first promise in its manifesto. However, the SKM’s narrative of job security seems to have overwhelmed the peace narrative. Since the beginning of the year, CM Golay has distributed thousands of job appointments, regularised those in ad-hoc positions or gave memorandum for regularisation to temporary employees and promoted those already in regular jobs.
The election result data suggests that those who received this job appointment, promotion or regularisation orders voted for the SKM. Apart from the total number of seats, the SKM’s biggest achievement this election has been the constituency-wise vote share with which it won.
The election results data suggests a massive Golay “wave”. The first indication is in Rhenock constituency where he won with 64.54 per cent of the votes, followed by the SDF’s Som Nath Poudyal, who was able to secure 19.5 per cent of the votes.
What’s noteworthy is that Rhenock is an upper-caste stronghold despite being the SKM’s winning seat since 2014. When the party lost the 2014 assembly elections, its upper-caste candidate Hemendra Adhikari won from there. Later, in 2019, it was another upper-caste candidate, Bishnu Kumar Sharma, who won for the party. So when Golay, hailing from a tribal community, submitted his candidacy for Rhenock against the veteran upper-caste politician from SDF, Poudyal, the decision appeared risky. Golay’s massive success in attracting votes across castes is a clear sign of a wave in his favour. He also won in Soreng-Chakung constituency with a massive 72 per cent votes.
