4.66 lakh voters
| 146 Assembly candidates | 14 Lok Sabha candidates
GANGTOK,: Sikkim goes to polls for the 32 Assembly constituencies and the lone Lok
Sabha seat on Friday. The fate of the 146 candidates for the Assembly elections
and 14 candidates for the lone Lok Sabha seat will be determined by 4.66 lakh
voters.
The
Election authorities have set up 573 polling stations – 88 in urban areas and
485 in rural areas – across Sikkim.
In the
Assembly elections, the ruling SKM and opposition SDF have fielded candidates
in all the 32 seats followed by BJP in 31 seats, CAP Sikkim in 30 seats and
Congress in 12 seats. The highest number of candidates is at Yuksam-Tashiding
with seven candidates while only Lachen-Mangan features a straight contest
between the SKM and the SDF.
As per the
data available, the Chujachen and Rhenock constituencies under Pakyong district
have the highest and second highest number of voters in Sikkim for the 2024
Assembly & Lok Sabha elections.
There are
4.66 lakh voters in Sikkim, as per the Election Commission.
As per the
official figures, Chujachen has around 18,590 voters – the largest electorate
in the State, followed closely by Rhenock with 18,230 voters. Both the
constituencies fall under Pakyong district, and have traditionally been leading
the State figures in terms of voters. If we were to add the number of voters of
Chujachen and Rhenock, the total figure is larger than the combined voters of
entire North Sikkim (Mangan district) which has around 31,838 voters for its
three constituencies.
The other
three constituencies under Pakyong district also have a sizable number of
electors with 16,313 voters in Namcheybung, 15,791 voters in West Pendam and
12,877 voters in Gnathang-Machong. There are a total of 109 polling
stations in the five Assembly constituencies with 109 polling parties and 33
reserved polling parties for Pakyong district.
Lachen-Mangan
constituency under Mangan district has the lowest number of electors in the
State. There are 8,290 voters in Lachen-Mangan constituency with Dzongu
constituency marginally ahead as it has 10,437 voters. The third and final
constituency of North Sikkim is Kabi-Lungchok with 13,111 voters.
The Sangha
seat, which has no physical constituency and consists of registered monks as
the electorate, has 4065 voters. In 2019 election, the number of Sangha
electors was 3,293 monks.
For
Gangtok district with eight seats, the State capital is the most prestigious
constituency and a candidate needs a majority support from its 11,840 voters.
The most populous constituency in Gangtok district is Martam-Rumtek with 17,763
voters.
In
Gyalshing district, Maneybung constituency has the highest number of voters –
16,251 votes - followed by Yuksom-Tashiding with 15,477 voters.
Similarly,
Soreng-Chakung has 16,689 voters – the highest in Soreng district while
Daramdin is marginally behind with 16,300 voters.
Namchi
district, formerly South Sikkim, has eight constituencies with all of them –
barring Namchi-Singhithang – have voters above 15,000 in numbers.
Poklok-Kamrang has the highest number of voters with 16,792 electors in Namchi
district while Namchi-Singithang has the lowest with 13,160 voters.
There are
three third gender voters in Sikkim – one each in Chujachen, Upper Tadong and
Dzongu constituencies.
In the
2019 elections, Sikkim had 4.32 lakh voters, and recorded 78.81% voting.
Among the
146 candidates, Chief Minister and SKM president PS Golay is contesting from
Rhenock and Soreng-Chakung while former Chief Minister and SDF president Pawan
Chamling is contesting from Namcheybung and Poklok Kamrang. State BJP president
DR Thapa is seeking a re-election from Upper Burtuk while CAP Sikkim leader
Ganesh Rai is contesting from Melli and Chujachen constituencies.
The Lok
Sabha election features sitting MP and SKM candidate Indra Hang Subba, former
two-term MP and SDF candidate PD Rai, veteran politician Bharat Basnet from CAP
Sikkim, DC Nepal from BJP, Gopal Chettri from INC and independent candidates.
