Sikkim BJP MLA says party won't even get 500 votes if...

Batting for a pre-poll alliance with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) in next year's assembly elections in Sikkim, Gangtok's Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Y T Lepcha has claimed that the saffron party "will not be able to secure even 500 votes" if it contests the polls alone.

Lepcha sounded a discordant note with the state BJP leadership, which has stated that the party was not satisfied with alliance partner SKM, headed by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, popularly known as P S Golay, and may consider fighting the assembly polls alone.

"The BJP's chances of winning any seat in the assembly polls in Sikkim due in 2024 is minimal without a tie-up with the SKM," he told reporters on Monday.

"The BJP has not won even a panchayat seat on its own. We won two assembly bypolls in alliance with the SKM," Lepcha said, pointing to his own victory from Gangtok seat and that of S T Venchungpa from Martam Rumtek seat.

"I personally favour that the alliance between the SKM and the BJP should continue even in 2024," Lepcha said, while exuding confidence that if the two parties fight the polls together, their coalition will win the election comfortably.

BJP spokesperson Kamal Adhikari, however, said the views expressed by Lepcha were his personal opinion.

"We will contest all the 32 assembly seats in Sikkim on our own as there has been no deliberation between the two parties on any alliance so far," he said.

He said the BJP was committed to ensuring the sanctity of Article 371(F) which provides special status to the Himalayan state.

"Some local political activists are accusing the BJP of being an anti-Sikkimese party by claiming that the constitutional provisions protecting old laws of Sikkim are being diluted by the ruling party at the Centre. These charges are disinformation against the party," Adhikari said.

"Our national and state leaders have said time and again said that the BJP was committed to defending the sanctity of Article 371(F) at all costs," he said.

The BJP has an informal alliance with the ruling SKM, the government of which it extends support from outside.

The BJP has 12 MLAs, ten of whom had defected from the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in 2019, while two others were elected on the party symbol in assembly polls held the same year.