Sikkim Municipal elections: SKM wins 58 seats unopposed, BJP gets four

The ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) on Saturday won 58 of 63 wards in nine urban local bodies in the Himalayan state unopposed, while its alliance partner BJP bagged four, according to the State Election Commission.
The opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and the Citizen Action Party Sikkim (CAPS) had already announced that they will boycott the municipal elections on April 24, questioning the reservation criteria for the urban body polls.
The nine urban local bodies – Gangtok, Singtam, Pakyong, Rangpo, Gyalshing, Namchi, Jorethan, Soreng, and Mangan – together have 63 seats.
The 62 candidates belonging to the SKM and BJP were declared elected unopposed on Saturday, the last date for withdrawal of nomination, the SEC said.
The polling for the municipal elections on April 24 will now only be held in one ward of the Gangtok Municipal Corporation. In the Diesel Power House ward of GMC, two candidates – Srijana Chhetri (BJP) and Bindhya Cintury (Independent) are in the fray.
The Gangtok Municipal Corporation has 21 wards, Singtam nagar panchayat (5 wards), Pakyong nagar panchayat (5 wards), Rangpo nagar panchayat (5 wards), Gyalshing nagar panchayat (5 wards), Namchi municipal council (7 wards), Jorethang nagar panchayat (5 wards), Soreng nagar panchayat (5 wards) and Mangan nagar panchayat (5 wards).
Earlier in the day, the BJP and ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha announced that they will fight the municipal elections as alliance partners.
Addressing a press conference, Sikkim BJP general secretary Arjun Rai said that the SKM led by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang have given six municipal seats to his party, but the nominations of one BJP candidate in Rangpo Nagar panchayat got rejected during scrutiny of papers. “We are thankful to the SKM for initially assigning six seats to BJP in municipalities and nagar panchayats, and we reiterate that the two parties would work in tandem as allies for the benefit of the people of Sikkim,” he said.
Rai said that the SKM is already an NDA partner at the national level and is supporting the Narendra Modi government.
Similarly, the BJP supports the SKM in Sikkim, the BJP leader said.
SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling said that the alliance with the BJP is a natural one as the two parties have been working together since 2019.
Asked whether the SKM and the BJP will go for an alliance in the 2029 assembly polls, he said that the leadership of the two parties will take a call on the issue.