2014 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election

The election was held on 12 April 2014 for 7th assembly of Sikkim, the northeastern state of India. It elected 32 members of Sikkim Legislative Assembly.

Background

Pawan Chamling led SDF had already formed the previous four governments in Sikkim having first formed the government after the 1994 election, when they won 19 seats within a year of the party being formed, and then again after the 1999 election, when they increased their tally to 24 seats. Chamling's third term began on 21 May 2004 after increasing his tally to 31. In the 2009 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election, the SDF had a clean-sweep winning all 32 seats in the state assembly and Chamling sworn in as a Chief Minister fourth times on 20 May 2009. SDF is contesting for the fifth consecutive term.

Campaign and issues

The Buddhist minority demanded Karmapa to contest from Rumtek monastery. Nepali community in Sikkim demanded tribal status.

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) was formed by Prem Singh Tamang in February 2013. Prem Singh Tamang alias P S Golay left Chamling's SDF in September 2014 and joined SKM. SKM contested from all 32 seats.

Schedule of election

Poll Event	Dates
Announcement & Issue of Press Note	5 March 2014
Issue of Notification	19 March 2014
Last Date for filing Nominations	26 March 2014
Scrutiny of Nominations	27 March 2014
Last date for withdrawal of Candidature	29 March 2014
Date of Poll	12 April 2014
Counting of Votes on	16 May 2014
Date before which election shall be completed	20 May 2014
Constituencies Polling on this day	32
Source: Election Commission of India

Polling

There were 370,731 eligible voters including 179,650 female voters. 538 polling stations were set up by election commission which were guarded by 3500 policemen and 15 companies of the West Bengal Police. There are two seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC), 12 for Bhutia-Lepcha (BL) communities out of 32 seats. One seat (Sangha) is reserved for 2900 monks of over 100 monasteries.

SKM leader Golay contested from Namthang-Rateypani seat against incumbent SDF minister Tilu Gurung.

SDF leader and incumbent chief minister Chamling contested from two places, Namchi-Singhithang and Rangang-Yangang.

Voter turnout

Total 80.97% of electorate including 80.57% males and 81.40% females cast their vote.

Voter turnout at each constituency was as below:

No.	Constituency	Voter turnout %
1	Yoksam- Tashiding (BL)	84.66
2	Yangthang	82.18
3	Maneybong Dentam	83.59
4	Gyalshing Barnyak	82.19
5	Rinchenpong	84.73
6	Daramdin	82.34
7	Soreng Chakung	83.52
8	Salghari Zoom (SC)	82.61
9	Barfung (BL)	83.37
10	Poklok Kamrang	84.16
11	Namchi Singhithang	76.87
12	Melli	82.16
13	Namthang Rateypani	81.64
14	Temi Namphing	81.33
15	Rangang Yangang	82.53
16	Tumin Lingee (BL)	82.66
17	Khamdong Singtam	82.32
18	West Pendam (SC)	81.15
19	Rhenok	82.02
20	Chujachen	80.44
21	Gnathang Machong (BL)	81.40
22	Namchwybong	82.42
23	Shyari (BL)	78.14
24	Martam Rumtek (BL)	80.23
25	Upper Tadong	73.54
26	Arithang	71.14
27	Gangtok (BL)	65.94
28	Upper Burtuk	78.77
29	Kabi Lungchuk (BL)	80.37
30	Djongu (BL)	86.49
31	Lachen Mangan (BL)	82.72
32	Sangha	74.62
	Total	80.97

Parties and candidates

Party Type	Code	Party Name	Number of candidates	Total
National Parties	BJP	Bharatiya Janata Party	13	45
	INC	Indian National Congress	32
State registered and recognized parties	SDF	Sikkim Democratic Front	32	32
State registered and unrecognised parties	TMC	Trinamool Congress	7	39
	SKM	Sikkim Krantikari Morcha	32
Independents	n/a	Independents	5	5
Total:				121
Source:

Results

Votes were counted and results were declared on 16 May 2014. SDF lost 10 seats to SKM resulting in formation of opposition in the assembly which did not exist in previous assembly.

File:India Sikkim Legislative Assembly 2014.svg Template:Election table |- !colspan=2|Political Party !Candidates !Votes !Seats Won !Seats +/- !% of Votes !% +/- |-style="background: #90EE90;" | Template:Party name with colour ||32||169983||22||Template:Decrease10|| 55.0%||Template:Decrease 10.9 |- | Template:Party name with colour ||32||126024||10||Template:Increase10||40.8%||Template:Increase 40.8 |- | Template:Party name with colour |32||4390||0||0||1.4%||Template:Decrease 26.2 |- | Template:Party name with colour ||13||2208||0||0||0.7%||- |- | Template:Party name with colour ||7||586||0||0||0.2%||Template:Increase 0.2% |- |bgcolor="Template:Party color"| |Independents ||5||1227||0||0||0.4||Template:Decrease 0.9% |- | Template:Party name with colour ||-||4460||-||-||1.4%|| |- |- class="unsortable" !colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| !!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Total!!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|478,861!!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Turnout!!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| -!!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|Voters!!style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|- Template:End

List of winners

The candidates elected to seventh legislative assembly are listed below:

#	Constituency	Reserved for	Member	Party
1	Yoksam-Tashiding	BL	Sonam Dadul Bhutia	Template:Full party name with color
2	Yangthang	None	Chandra Maya Limbu (Subba)	Template:Full party name with color
3	Maneybong Dentam	None	Narendra Kumar Subba	Template:Full party name with color
4	Gyalshing-Barnyak	None	Sher Bahadur Subedi	Template:Full party name with color
5	Rinchenpong	BL	Karma Sonam Lepcha	Template:Full party name with color
6	Daramdin	BL	Danorbu Sherpa	Template:Full party name with color
7	Soreng-Chakung	None	Ram Bahadur Limbu (Subba)	Template:Full party name with color
8	Salghari-Zoom	SC	Arjun Kumar Ghatani	Template:Full party name with color
9	Barfung	BL	Dorjee Dazom Bhutia	Template:Full party name with color
10	Poklok-Kamrang	None	Kedar Nath Rai	Template:Full party name with color
11	Namchi-Singhithang	None	Pawan Kumar Chamling	Template:Full party name with color
12	Melli	None	Tulshi Devi Rai	Template:Full party name with color
13	Namthang-Rateypani	None	Tilu Gurung	Template:Full party name with color
14	Temi-Namphing	None	Garjaman Gurung	Template:Full party name with color
15	Rangang-Yangang	None	Pawan Kumar Chamling	Template:Full party name with color
16	Tumin Lingee	BL	Ugyen Tshering Gyatso Bhutia	Template:Full party name with color
17	Khamdong-Singtam	None	Som Nath Poudyal	Template:Full party name with color
18	West Pendam	SC	Gopal Baraily	Template:Full party name with color
19	Rhenock	None	Hemendra Adhikari	Template:Full party name with color
20	Chujachen	None	Bikram Pradhan	Template:Full party name with color
21	Gnathang-Machong	BL	Dorjee Tshering Lepcha	Template:Full party name with color
22	Namchaybong	None	Bek Bahadur Rai	Template:Full party name with color
23	Shyari	BL	Kunga Nima Lepcha	Template:Full party name with color
24	Martam-Rumtek	BL	Mechung Bhutia	Template:Full party name with color
25	Upper Tadong	None	Timothy William Basnett	Template:Full party name with color
26	Arithang	None	Shyam Pradhan	Template:Full party name with color
27	Gangtok	None	Pintso Chopel	Template:Full party name with color
28	Upper Burtuk	None	Prem Singh Tamang	Template:Full party name with color
29	Kabi Lungchok	BL	Ugyen Nedup Bhutia	Template:Full party name with color
30	Djongu	BL	Sonam Gyatso Lepcha	Template:Full party name with color
31	Lachen-Mangan	BL	Tshering Wangdi Lepcha	Template:Full party name with color
32	Sangha	Sangha	Sonam Lama	Template:Full party name with color

Government formation

SDF led by Chamling secured majority by winning 22 out of 32 seats. SKM won the rest ten seats.

Pawan Kumar Chamling was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim for the fifth time on 21 May 2014 by Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil, the Governor of Sikkim. He became the chief minister fifth time, a record previously held by Jyoti Basu who ruled West Bengal from 1977 to 2000.

See also

• Sikkim Legislative Assembly