Pawan Kumar Chamling's five-term regime comes to an end as Sikkim Krantikari Morcha bags majority in Assembly polls

Gangtok: After over 24 years in power, five-time Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling’s regime ended in Sikkim on Thursday with his party SDF losing the state elections to SKM. While Sikkim Democratic Front(SDF) got 15 seats in the hill state, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), which came into being in 2013, bagged 17 seats, one more than required for a majority in the 32-member Assembly, according to the official trends. In 2014 Assembly elections, SDF won 23 seats in the 32-member Assembly, while SKM settled with nine seats. Both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections were held in Sikkim on 11 April. [caption id=“attachment_1714459” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling. AFP[/caption] The counting of votes in 542 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am today amidst tight security, capping a two-month long election process which witnessed high-octane campaigning and charges of EVM tampering and violations of the Model Code of Conduct. The ruling BJP appeared to be storming back to power with a comfortable majority on its own for the second consecutive time and has crossed the 300-mark. BJP whose campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on muscular nationalism and a strident anti-Congress plank is currently leading on 300 seats, 28 seats ahead of the halfway mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. On the other side, the main challenger Congress was trailing behind BJP leading in only 51 seats.