Former Sikkim Democratic Front leader Ganesh Rai on Thursday launched Citizen Action Party with a vision to create an equitable society by providing justice and transparency in governance to further both individual and collective goals.

He launched the party at a public meeting here, which is about 65km from Gangtok, and over 2,000 people were estimated to be present there. Rai said the new party would be bereft of the flag and unwarranted political sloganeering of “zindabad and murdabad” that only begets violence.

“According to the directive of the Election Commission of India, the flag is not mandatory. The politics of flags is just to show people are with us, which is why we want to practise politics bereft of a flag and sloganeering,” said Rai who had led a campaign of over two months under the banner of Reform Call in the lead up to the launch of his party.

Sikkim, which is the smallest state in terms of population with just about 6.80 lakh people, has the tradition of hoisting the flags of the parties they support on the tops of their houses.

Rai was the zilla panchayat president of the now-defunct South Sikkim district. He has been appointed as the chief coordinator of the party’s interim committee which has several other members. “Our election committee was also declared today. The election will be held within one month to choose a full-fledged president and other office-bearers,” he said.

The Citizen Action Party’s vision document released on Thursday said: “Citizen action Committee shall endeavour to make our governance and our systems just, transparent and ensure equitable and just distribution of opportunities towards furthering individual and collective goals.”

The crowd at the meeting where the Citizen Action Party was launched at Melli on Thursday

The document further pledged: “To create a society that caters to bring the best out of each individual and provide equal opportunities for holistic development of every individual and all-round development of our society in keeping with the global goals for sustainable development.”

The new party also promised to bring about socio-political, economic and administrative reforms in the state, which had merged with India in 1975 following a referendum carried in the then-independent kingdom of Sikkim.

“In the coming days, you will know through our programmes what sort of reforms — one-two of which you all witnessed at the launch of the party today (Thursday) — we will bring (in Sikkim politics),” said Rai, alluding to the decision not to have a flag of its own and appoint the president through the election.