People's CM

Pawan Kumar Chamling recently achieved the distinction of being the longest-serving chief minister in the country. While there’s no serious threat to his position, Chamling knows that he needs to be more cautious of both opponents and allies than ever before

- Kaushik Deka

On the rainy evening of April 23, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling was anxiously waiting in the living room of his official residence in Gangtok for a letter from the PWD department. Two days ago, during his 32-day-long statewide visit, he had met a 32-year-old mother of three at Bermiok, West Sikkim. She had recently lost her husband, had no source of regular income, and sought the CM’s help to find her a livelihood. Chamling, who travels with his entourage of ministers and secretaries during such mass connect programmes, immediately asked the PWD secretary to give her a job in his department at a monthly salary of Rs 9,000. It was not just a politician’s promise to be forgotten later. He wanted to see the appointment letter.

It’s this micro management of governance and direct connect with the people of the state that explains Chamling’s incredible achievement of becoming the longest-serving chief minister of the country. On April 28, he eclipsed the record of Jyoti Basu, who helmed the neighbouring West Bengal for 23 years and 137 days.

Chamling first became the chief minister on December 12, 1994, and since then has returned to power for a fifth consecutive term. According to social and political observers, the leader of the Sikkim Democratic Front doesn’t face any serious threat to his chair. “He is the best option as the Opposition is too weak,” says Komol Singha, head of the department of economics, Sikkim University. A weak opposition alone, however, cannot define Chamling’s uninterrupted reign. Despite allegations of corruption and nepotism levelled against his government by the main opposition party, the Skkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), formed mostly by rebels of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), Chamling has managed to keep his vote base intact, at least among the rural population, which constitutes 75 percent of the total population.