Bimal Gurung accused Sikkim chief minister P.S. Golay of routing funds for the BJP in the Darjeeling-Siliguri region to influence the ongoing elections purportedly to save his government in Sikkim that is indebted to the BJP.

“BJP is about to gobble the Sikkim government and the Sikkim government in order to save his government is holding on to the dhoti of BJP and indulging in politics…how much funds have you send for Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Siliguri, Naxalbari, Khoribari? How many crores, have you sent?” Gurung questioned in a rally at Rangpo near the Sikkim border on Saturday evening.

This is the first time in recent memory that a Sikkim chief minister has been accused of funding elections in Bengal, a charge denied by Golay.

Gurung, however, was also specific in his speech and said funds were being sent through contractors.

“We have not and will never interfere in the politics of any other state. We have not done it in the past and will not do it in the future. We all know there is an election going on and we have nothing to comment on which leader says what about us,” said Golay.

An observer said that Gurung’s allegation against Golay has to be seen in the backdrop of how he became the chief minister following the slender victory of his party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), in the 2019 Sikkim Assembly election. SKM had won 17 seats against the Pawan Chamling-headed SDF’s 15 seats in the 32-member House.

Golay, however, had not contested the elections since he was rendered ineligible after serving a year’s term in a corruption case. 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. Golay was freed after serving a year’s term on August 10, 2018 and the elections to the Sikkim Assembly were held in April 2019. Following SKM’s victory, Sikkim governor Ganga Prasad, an old BJP hand from Bihar, invited Golay to form the government.

As demanded by law, since Golay was not a member of the Assembly, he had to get himself elected to the Assembly within six months of assuming office on May 27, 2019, which Golay did under extraordinary circumstances after the ECI reduced his disqualification period from six years to one-and-half years a day ahead of the last day for filing of nominations for the October 21, 2019 bypoll, and a day after the SKM had agreed to an alliance with the BJP.