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18 of the 24 seats in the State Council | |||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in Sikkim in January 1973. [1] [2] The Sikkim National Party emerged as the largest party, winning nine of the 18 elected seats. [3]
The State Council was established in 1953 by the Chogyal. [4] It originally had 18 members, of which 12 were elected and six (including the President) appointed by the Chogyal. [4] Of the 12 elected members, six were for the Nepali community and six for the Lepcha and the Bhutia communities. [4] For the 1958 elections the number of seats was increased to 20 by adding one seat for the Sangha and an additional appointed member. [4] In 1966 a further four seats had been added; one each for the Nepali and Lepcha/Bhutia communities, together with one for the Tsong and a scheduled caste seat. [5]
Candidates for election to the Council had to be at least 30 years old, whilst the voting age was set at 21. [4]
The election schedule was announced by the Election Commission on 23 September 1972. [6]: 3–65
# | Poll Event | Date |
---|---|---|
1 | Publication of final electoral rolls | 24 October 1972 |
2 | Last Date for filing nomination | 31 October 1972 |
3 | Last date for withdrawal of nominations | 25 November 1972 |
4 | Polling - Phase 1 (West, South districts) | 10 January 1973 |
Polling - Phase 2 (Gangtok, East, North districts) | 23 January 1973 | |
5 | Date of Counting | 29 January 1973 |
6 | Announcement of Results | 15 February 1973 |
Prior to the elections the Sikkim State Congress and the Sikkim Janata Party merged to form the Sikkim Janata Congress. [2]
Party | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|
Sikkim National Party | 9 | +1 | |
Sikkim National Congress | 5 | +2 | |
Sikkim Janata Congress | 2 | – | |
Independents | 2 | – | |
Appointed members | 6 | 0 | |
Total | 24 | 0 | |
Source: AC Sinha [7] |
In addition to the elected members, six members were appointed to the Sikkim State Council by the Chogyal on 5 March; Traten Sherba Gyaltsen, Madan Mohan Rasaily, Chhoutuk Tsering Pazo, Dhan Bahadur Chettri, Kali Prasad Rai and Atang Lepcha. [9]
Following the election, the Sikkim National Congress and Sikkim Janata Congress claimed that vote rigging took place in the South Sikkim constituency. [10] They demanded that officials involved were arrested, but these demands were not met, leading to protests. [2] The unrest led to the signing of a tripartite agreement on 8 May between the Choygal, Sikkimese political parties and the government of India. The agreement provided for the establishment of a responsible government under the supervision of a Chief Executive nominated by the Indian government.
...they were supported by Peyching Lama, who had been elected un-contested from the monasteries...
The defeated parties alleged polling in Rabong in South Sikkim was rigged in the favour of the SNP candidate