Sikkim assembly election: Pawan Kumar Chamling’s tenure as chief minister ends after 24 years 

Pawan Kumar Chamling.

New Delhi: The longest-serving chief minister of India, Pawan Kumar Chamling’s tenure ended, on Thursday, after his party failed to secure mandate in the Sikkim assembly election. Chamling’s party, the Sikkim Democratic Front, lost the state election to a resurgent Sikkim Krantikari Morcha.   

In the assembly election, SDF got 15 seats in the Himalayan state, while SKM, which was formed in 2013, bagged 17 seats, one more than required for a majority in the 32-member assembly.

According to Election Commission officials, Chamling, however, was elected from two assembly constituencies – Namchi Singhithang and Poklok Kamrang.

Chamling won the Namchi Singhithang seat by a wafer-thin margin of 377 votes. In the Poklok Kamrang seat, Chamling defeated his rival Kharka Bahadur Rai from the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha by 2,899 votes.

Chamling has been the chief minister of Sikkim for more than 24 years since December 1994.

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