Bhaichung Bhutia, one of the most successful footballers in the country, hung his boots for the second time on Tuesday following his highly unsuccessful political innings.

Bhutia, the former captain of the Indian football team, was defeated by Riskhal Dorjee Bhutia of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) by a margin of 4,346 votes in the Barfung constituency in the recent Assembly elections. This was Bhutia’s sixth straight electoral defeat.

Bhutia contested as a candidate of Pawan Chamling’s Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), with which his Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) had merged in November 2023.

“After the 2024 election results, I have had the realisation that electoral politics is simply not for me. I am therefore quitting all forms of electoral politics with immediate effect,” Bhutia, who was the vice-president of the SDF, said in a written statement.

Bhutia, 48, expressed regret over his unsuccessful political career.

“My only regret is that I felt I had great ideas with regard to development of sports and tourism which, given a chance, I would have loved to implement and thus contribute to the growth of the state in a very honest and sincere way. Unfortunately, it was not to be….,” stated Bhutia who congratulated current Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay) for the “resounding mandate”.

Golay’s SKM won 31 of 32 Sikkim Assembly seats.

Bhutia, who hung his footballing boots in 2011 and has a stadium named after him in the Himalayan state, has had a miserable second innings when he tried to make politics his career.

The “Sikkimese Sniper”, who is also a recipient of Padma Shri and Arjuna Award for his footballing prowess, started his political stint in Bengal, a state where he spent most of his time playing football.

Bhutia fought elections in Bengal twice — from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and Siliguri in the 2016 Assembly polls. On both the occassions, he was fielded by the Trinamool Congress.

Bhutia then moved to his home state of Sikkim.

In the 2019 Sikkim Assembly polls, he fought from Gangtok and Tumen-Lingi but tasted defeat in both the constituencies.Bhutia also contested an Assembly bypoll from Gangtok in 2019 to repeat the losing streak.

He had formed the HSP in 2018.

Quoting Lord Buddha’s saying that “one’s intentions must be good”, the footballer said his intention in politics “was to do good, for the people of both the state and country”.

“Bhutia could not simply take on and beat the bigger political players of Sikkim, Chamling and Golay,” said a political observer in Sikkim.

The footballer has not spelt out his next plan. “I now wish to devote more time to introspect, work towards my other goals and discover my purpose anew,” said Bhutia.

In the past, Bhutia had pursued many avenues. Apart from running successful business ventures in tourism, he set up soccer schools and took up the role of a football coach.

Bhutia took up TV assignments as an expert commentator and won Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, a TV show which is seen as the Indian version of the popular international show, Dancing with the Stars, partnering with choreographer Sonia Jaffer in 2009.