Between hard rock&an election

As Sikkim awaits the Assembly election results (voting was on April 19 and the votes will be counted on June 2, not June 4, along with the rest of the country, according to the Election Commission's latest decision), four significant events that took place in 2023 will shape the state's future trajectory.

- ADITI PHADNIS

First, in February 2023, footballer Bhaichung Bhutia merged his Hamro Sikkim Party with the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF). In tandem, SDF chief and fiveterm Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling announced that 2024 would be his last election, made Mr Bhutia vice-president of the SDF, and offered him nomination to an Assembly constituency.

Mr Bhutia's efforts to become a politician have met with little success so far: He was the Trinamool Congress candidate for mayor of Siliguri, an election he lost. He also lost the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In 2018, he launched the Hamro Sikkim Party in a bid to return to his home state.

Mr Bhutia's electoral record was mocked by Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang Golay, who advised him to stick to football instead of attempting to toss dallo khursani (tiny red chillies grown in Sikkim and considered the hottest in the world) in politics.

Second, Sikkim saw its worst flash flood in recent history when in October a glacial lake flooded the Teesta river and the downstream Teesta III hydroelectric dam.

For a tiny state like Sikkim it was a catastrophe: More than 20 Army jawans and significant quantities of weaponry and ordnance vanished in the deluge. More than 100 bodies were recovered and over 60,000 people were affected.

Corruption in compensation became a major political issue and figured in the Assembly election.