SKM chief claims party will sweep Sikkim assembly polls

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) president Prem Singh Tamang on Monday asserted that his party will "sweep" the upcoming state assembly elections, as people are fed up of the "corrupt" Sikkim Democratic Front government.

"We will sweep the upcoming assembly polls in Sikkim, as the people have become tired of a corrupt government being led by Chief Minister (Pawan Kumar) Chamling for more than two decades," he said at SKM's seventh foundation day function here.

Tamang, popularly known as P S Golay, also hit out at Chamling, his one-time mentor, for "dividing" the society on caste and communal grounds for "vote bank" politics.

The SKM chief had to bear with the ignominy of being disqualified from the membership of the Sikkim legislative assembly in 2016, following his conviction for a year in a corruption case.

"I had to serve a year in imprisonment for a crime which I did not commit," he said, referring to the conviction in a cattle distribution scam during his stint as a minister in the Chamling government.