Sikkim Democratic Front president Pawan Chamling has questioned the legality of the election of Sikkim chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay) and said allowing him to continue in the post was an insult to the state and the country at large.

Chamling, who had been the chief minister for 25 years from 1994 to 2019, said a convicted person by law shouldn’t have been allowed to contest any election for six years from the day of his completing his sentence. “A convicted person has become the chief minister. He has been allowed to contest an election and rule over the Sikkimise people,” he told The Telegraph.

Chamling said the independent kingdom of Sikkim had merged with India in 1975 to usher in the rule of law, but the manner in which a convicted person had been allowed to contest an election was something for the country, not just Sikkim, to ponder over.

“This is an insult…Did we merge Sikkim for this? We did so to ensure the safety and respect of Sikkim,” he said.

Golay was convicted in a corruption case and was freed from prison after serving a year’s term on August 10, 2018. According to a section of the anti-corruption law, a person convicted of corruption cannot contest an election for six years from the date of his release from jail.

However, Golay, who had not contested the April 2019 Assembly elections, had won a byelection held in October the same year. His contest was enabled by the Election Commission of India that reduced his disqualification period from six years to one-and-a-half years a day after his Sikkim Krantikari Morcha had agreed to an alliance with the BJP.

The EC had cited two main reasons for reducing the disqualification period. They were: 1) At the time Golay had committed the offence, a punishment of minimum of two years was warranted under the anti-graft law to attract disqualification. 2) The section under which he was convicted was omitted by an amendment in 2018.

Reacting to Chamling’s charge, an SKM leader said: “Our chief minister was elected by following the due process of law. Mr Chamling is barking up the wrong tree.”