How Pawan Chamling scripted Sikkim's spectacular turnaround story

GANGTOK: Leading a state as CM for four consecutive terms — and looking poised to displace Jyoti Basu as the longest serving CM — is only half the Pawan Chamling story. The other is how he made Sikkim one of the country's most progressive and affluent states.

When this Himalayan kingdom merged with India in 1975, Sikkim was worse off than any other state. That it now has the lowest percentage of people below the poverty line and its per capita income much higher than the national average is largely attributed to the efforts of Chamling, who entered politics in 1982 as a gram panchayat president. He was 32 then.

In 1985, he won the assembly polls on a ticket from the then ruling Sikkim Sangram Parishad. He again won in 1990 and then CM Nar Bahadur Bhandari made him the industries minister. Soon, he broke away and formed Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in 1993. SDF swept the 1994 polls and has been in office ever since.

In 2009, Chamling's party won all the assembly, making Sikkim the only state where opposition benches in the House are empty. This, SDF leaders say, didn't happen just because the Opposition was weak, but because of the prosperity Chamling's government ushered in.

Sikkim government figures are revealing. In 1993-94, 43 percent of Sikkim's population lived below the poverty line. Last year's Planning Commission numbers show Sikkim recorded the steepest fall in poverty over the last decade - from 30 percent people in BPL category in 2004-05, the figure was 7.5 percent in 2012-13. In real terms, that's a little over 50,000 people. Chamling claims he'll make Sikkim poverty-free by 2017.

The state will go organic by next year. It's already plastic-free. Its initiatives in eco-tourism, devolution of powers, boosting agricultural production and rural incomes, attracting 'clean' industries have won the state plaudits.

Rivals acknowledge Sikkim advanced under Chamling, but contend it would've done even better had corruption not held it back. "Chamling is corrupt and so are his ministers. Hadn't there been such diversion of public funds into private pockets, Sikkim would've advanced more," says PCC chief A D Subba.

Chamling is seen as an achiever and hard worker. He speaks mostly in Hindi and strikes a quick rapport with people. Babus call him a hard task-master, but fair. In SDF and government, only his word matters.

Till his associate Prem Singh Tamang (popular as P S Golay) raised the banner of revolt in 2009, Chamling had no detractors. A year ago, Golay, formed the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha. Many view this as history repeating itself — just as Chamling overthrew Bhandari, Golay too has revolted. But everyone agrees Golay has a long way to go.