The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) has increased its tally of seats to 31 in the 2024 state assembly elections from 17 in 2019. In March, the BJP ended its alliance with the SKM, labelling it “corrupt”.
Meanwhile, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which ruled the state for 25 consecutive years until 2019, won one seat. The party had won 15 seats in 2019. This follows a trend of decline for the SDF since 2009, when it won all seats in the state. Since 2014, when the SDF first contested elections, the party has been ousting the SKM from the Assembly.
The SKM won 15 seats from the SDF in 2019, increasing its vote share from 18.44% to 78.21%. Jong constituency won the largest share of the vote with 78.21%.
In 2019, the difference in vote share between the SKM and the SDF was just 0.6 percentage points. This year, that gap widened to 31.01 percentage points, with the SKM winning 58.38% of the vote and the SDF 27.37%. The SKM first ran in elections in 2014, winning about 41% of the vote.
The Indian National Congress won 0.32% of the votes. The party’s vote share has fallen from 27.64% since 2009 to less than 1% in 2019. The party has not won a seat since it won one in 2004. The BJP, on the other hand, has never won a seat.
The party was formed in 2013 by Prem Singh Golay, the number two to Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling from the SDF. Chamling lost in both the constituencies he contested in, but current Chief Minister PS Tamang, from the SKM, won in both constituencies.
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