SKM president PS Golay will contest Assembly polls

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) president P S Golay will contest the state Assembly polls due later this year, a party leader said on Friday.

"Golay is eligible to contest the assembly polls as the relevant provision in the People's Representation Act, 1951 under which he was disqualified post-conviction in a corruption case stands repealed," the SKM's legal cell head Rinzing Dorji Tamang told reporters.

Tamang claimed that following clarity on legal position under the RPA Act with regard to disqualification of a member of assembly post-conviction in a case Golay has decided to contest the assembly polls in Sikkim.

The SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling, while announcing that the party chief will contest the assembly polls from a constituency to be decided later, claimed that the decision has boosted the morale of the party workers ahead of the polls.

"We will win the electoral battle against the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) headed by Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chaming," he claimed.

Golay had rebelled against Chaming after he was denied a ministerial berth following the SDF's victory in 2009 assembly polls.

Four years later, the four-term MLA had floated the SKM which went on to win 10 seats in 2014 assembly polls. Seven of these 10 SKM MLAs subsequently defected to the SDF while Golay himself was convicted to a year's imprisonment in a corruption case.

He was released from jailed after serving out the sentence in August last year.