Ex-bureaucrat makes smooth transition to Namcheybung’s public representative after defeating Chamling
GANGTOK, : Having vanquished political stalwart Pawan Chamling in his political debut, newly elected SKM legislator Raju Basnet is gearing up to “get things done” in Namcheybung constituency like he used to do while working as a government officer for 33 years.
“When I was working as a government secretary, my working attitude was different…all my staff know that there is no (government) file left pending in my table. My table used to stay clean. It did not take much time for me to understand the particular file and quickly clear it. You need to have that kind of working attitude. Here as the Namcheybung MLA, my attitude is also the same…get things done,” said Basnet.
Basnet was speaking with SIKKIM EXPRESS on Wednesday at Aho where people are constantly visiting and congratulating him for the Namcheybung triumph against the former five-term Chief Minister.
The 55-year-old had taken voluntary retirement from government service as a Sports secretary on March 7. He was fielded by the SKM as the party’s candidate for Namcheybung constituency in the recently concluded Sikkim Assembly Elections 2024.
The transition from a government servant to an elected public representative now places Basnet in the policy making & monitoring team, leaving it to the bureaucrats to implement them. He acknowledges this change as advantageous for him as a civil servant-turned-politician.
“As a secretary or officer in any post, you are implementing the will of the government. It is your responsibility to fulfil the government’s directives. Now having come to this side (elected representative), the responsibility is more towards making the policies and to monitor its implementation. More responsibility comes to you as to what policies are being made that will decide the State’s direction,” he said.
“It is easier on the other side (government worker) because you are implementing the policy made by others. If it works out poorly then the blame does not come to you. But here (as a government), the entire blame comes to you and if the policy goes well, credit also comes,” added Basnet.
Namcheybung was among the much anticipated constituencies as it featured a first-timer, though from the ruling party, against Chamling who had never lost any Assembly election since 1985. In the end, Basnet cruised to a comfortable victory (7195 votes) with a 2256-vote margin over the SDF president.
Since day one of his campaign, the SKM candidate had maintained a confident profile of taking the honour of defeating a hitherto undefeated candidate from the SDF.
I was facing a five-term former Chief Minister with over 40 years of political experience and an undefeated political opponent and at that time I told our party president that I will return victorious, said Basnet.
Basnet shared multiple reasons for his confidence – primarily were the exemplary works done by Chief Minister PS Golay and the SKM government in the first term.
“The Chief Minister worked dedicatedly across Sikkim in five years of the SKM government, there were exemplary works done which benefited people of all sections. His programmes had reached every person and I felt that I was capable of reaching out to the people of Namcheybung as the party’s candidate. I got love and support of the people and SKM workers of Namcheybung. I am grateful to the SKM cadre of Namcheybung as even though I was new to many, they embraced me and took me along. I am grateful to the party president,” said Basnet.
Basnet stressed that anti-incumbency had not set in in the SKM government’s first term, paving the path for a landslide electoral victory with 31 seats for the second term.
“In the five years of SKM government, anti-incumbency had not set it. If you minus the two years of Covid which gave only three years to the SKM government, there was no question of anti-incumbency coming in and that is why the electoral results were not surprising”, he said.
He maintained that the Sikkimese electorate had already rejected the caste-based politics of the SDF since the past two elections.
Basnet, as the area MLA, wants to focus on ensuring that basic amenities like road, power and water supply reaches every settlement in Namcheybung, as outlined by the SKM with its ‘BiPaSa’ (Bijuli, Pani, Sadak) electoral promise.
“During my campaigning, I found that there are major issues of roads, power and water supply in Namcheybung. There was not much development in Namcheybung despite this constituency giving victories to the SDF in every election in the past. Firstly, we will focus on these basic needs which are the main demands of the people here.”
Told that people have more expectations from him, Basnet said: “These (road, water and power supply) are basic requirements of the people. We must provide these basic needs and then move forward to work in sectors like higher education. We want to have at least one national-level institute in Namcheybung. Many things can be done here like setting up micro-industries that can increase the area’s GDP.”