Chamling out of assembly after 40 years

For the first time in nearly 40 years, five-term former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling will not be seen inside Sikkim Assembly after a crushing defeat at the hands of protégé-turned-archrival Prem Singh Tamang's SKM.

Not only did his Sikkim Democratic Front lose 31 of the 32 assembly seats it contested in the poll, but even the 73-year-old politician could not win either of the seats, Namcheybung and PoklokKamrang, he fought, a result few could have predicted.

Although the outcome of the assembly poll may be devastating for hardcore SDF supporters, the fall of Chamling, once a powerful regional satrap who thrived on sub-nationalism, had begun five years ago.