The Sikkim Assembly on Wednesday went “Opposition-less” with Tenzing Norbhu Lamtha defecting from the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) to the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM).
Lamtha had defeated sitting SKM minister Kunga Nima Lepcha from the Syari constituency by a margin of 1,314 votes.
Prem Singh Tamang (Golay), chief minister and the president of the SKM, announced Lamtha’s decision to quit the opposition SDF to join SKM. “Having left the SDF, he has officially joined our SKM family as the sole MLA of the SDF party. During our discussion, he raised several commendable concerns related to the welfare of his constituency,” said Golay.
Lamtha met Golay at the chief minister’s official residence Mintokgang on Wednesday morning.
“I also welcome his proposals to work collaboratively for the benefit of the entire Syari constituency, aiming for the comprehensive development of the area and its people,” added Golay.
In fact, Lamtha had joined the SKM in 2019 and was also an advisor to the government in the information and technology department during the last tenure of the SKM party.
“When the party failed to announce his name as their candidate, he joined the SDF at the last moment and Pawan Chamling’s party promptly gave him the ticket,” said a source.
Lamtha on Wednesday talked about how dearly he missed going to the SKM office that he would regularly visit before joining the SDF.
“I also used to think that with 31 MLAs (in a house of 32), why would I be needed….I am extremely happy today,” said Lamtha.
In the previous tenure, Sikkim at least had an Opposition voice in SDF president Chamling.
In the 2019 Sikkim Assembly elections, SKM won 17 seats while the SDF had won 15 seats. In fact, the vote share of the SDF was 47.63 per cent, a shade higher than the SKM’s 47.03 per cent.
However, most of the SDF MLAs deserted the losing party. Ultimately, SKM had a strength of 19 MLAs, while BJP which had not won a single seat managed to cobble together 12 MLAs through defection and win in the subsequent bypolls.
