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.