Guwahati: Former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia’s Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP), formed in 2018, has adopted the flag of Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP), one of the five political parties in Sikkim that have been removed by the Election Commission of India (ECI). was given. september.
On Wednesday – on the occasion of the 82nd birth anniversary of former Sikkim chief minister and SSP founder Nar Bahadur Bhandari, who died in 2017 – SSP senior vice-president Kamal Rai called Bhutia the party’s red and white with a “legacy of legacy”. Flag handed over. Nar Bahadur Bhandari”.
In a press release, the HSP said: “As the founding father of modern Sikkim, Bhandari is one of our finest and most loved politicians, who laid the foundation of Sikkim today. Our mission is to unite people in our fight for change. In our fight, HSP will carry forward the values of Bhandari. New flag signifies new beginning, a new outlook, a new alternativeAnd a new era of progress and prosperity in Sikkim under the leadership of Hamro Sikkim Party.”
Speaking to ThePrint, HSP general secretary Biraj Adhikari said, “We have adopted their (SSP’s) flag”.
When asked whether the members of the SSP are also likely to join the HSP, he said, “Yesterday one or two members joined and more are expected to join in the coming days.”
Dr Durga Prasad Chhetri, Head of the Department of Political Science, Sikkim University, said the move is unlikely to be significant in the political scenario of Sikkim.
“The trend here is that once a party loses an election, it is difficult for them to come back – perhaps that is why the members of the SSP have decided on it,” he said.
He said: “The voters here are mostly looking for the current Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and some still root for the previous ruling party, the Sikkim Democratic Front.”
ThePrint tried to reach Bhutia via telephone for his comments on the adoption of the flag, but could not get through.
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two parties
After Sikkim became India’s 22nd state in 1975, its first assembly elections were held in 1979. The Sikkim Janata Parishad (SJP) – a party founded by Bhandari in 1977 – emerged as the single largest party, and Bhandari became chief minister for the first time.
Two years later, the SJP merged with the Congress. However, in 1984 – after the then Governor Homi JH Taleyarkhan sacked him from the post of Chief Minister – Bhandari broke away from the Congress. He was elected to the Lok Sabha that year as an independent candidate, and formed the SSP.
The SSP won the 1985 Sikkim Assembly election – after which Bhandari resigned from his Lok Sabha seat to become CM once again – as well as the next election in 1989. The party eventually lost power to the Sikkim Democratic Front in 1994.
Bhandari merged the SSP with the Congress in 2003 and was appointed the President of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee, but was Ousted After 10 years from the post. he then became once again ssp president
However, the SSP had not won any seats since the 1999 assembly elections, and in the 2004 election, it supported a new party, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, with which Bhandari was associated. Allegedly closely linked until his death in 2017.
The SSP was then headed by Bhandari’s wife Dil Kumari, until he became inactive. This September, ECI remove 86 “non-existent” Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) including SSP.
Meanwhile, HSP was started by footballer-turned-politician Bhutia in 2018. In the 2019 assembly election, the party nominated 24 candidates. constituencies But lost them all.
In the 2019 by-elections to Gangtok and Martam-Rumptek assembly seats also, the HSP fielded two candidates, including Bhutia (for Gangtok), but could not win a single one.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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