House run ends as five-time CM Pawan Kumar Chamling loses from both seats in Sikkim

GANGTOK: Five-time former CM of Sikkim and SDF supremo Pawan Kumar Chamling lost from both Poklok Kamrang and Namcheybung assembly constituencies he contested. Chamling an eight-time MLA lost to Sikkim Krantikari Morcha’s Bhoj Raj Rai by 3,063 votes in the Poklok Kamrang seat in his native Namchi district.
The five-time former CM lost to SKM’s Raju Basnet by 2,256 votes from the Namcheybung assembly constituency.Basnet bagged 7,195 votes while Chamling got 4,939. Chamling was the chief minister of Sikkim for 25 years from 1994 to 2019.
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.
Like Basu, whom he idolises, Chamling had led his party to five terms in power from 1994 to 2019.
This was no mean feat for a politician who had made a humble beginning in Sikkim politics by getting elected as the president of Yangang gram panchayat in 1982.
In 1985, Chamling won his maiden assembly from Damthang constituency in his home district of South Sikkim on the ticket of Sikkim Sangram Parishad led by the then chief minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari.
Apart from his electoral successes, Chamling was also known for his oratorial skills. Though he is only a matriculate to show for his academic qualification, he has been a prolific writer and poet penning his works in Nepali.