The face of the Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) and party working president Bhaichung Bhutia is likely to contest the Sikkim Assembly polls from more than one Assembly constituency.
A report published by NET on Wednesday quoted the former Indian footballer as saying that the Assembly constituencies from where he would contest will be “very close to his heart”.
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According to the report, Bhutia will make the name of those constituencies public in the next two days.
Although it will be Bhutia’s electoral debut in Sikkim, he had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Darjeeling constituency on Trinamool Congress ticket.
The Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) has so far announced names of 14 candidates out of the total 32 Assembly seats in the state.
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The Assembly polls in Sikkim will be held simultaneously with Lok Sabha polls in single phase – April 11.
The list of Hamro Sikkim Party’s candidates for the Assembly polls has a number of bigwigs.
The party has declared Biraj Adhikar as the party candidate for the lone parliamentary seat.
Regarding the probable constituencies from where he would contest, Bhutia on Tuesday reportedly said: “I will announce where I will be contesting from in the next two days. Wherever I will be contesting from will be a constituency that will be very close to my heart… so I will be contesting in one or two seats, those seats will be very personal.”
Regarding the parliamentary candidate of the party, Biraj Adhikar, Bhutia reportedly said: “I can’t compare myself with Biraj Adhikari Sir, the amount of work he has done for Sikkim with keeping the State first, the contribution to Sikkimese people and their rights, I don’t think I can reach anywhere near to him.”
He also said: “Sikkim has got the right Member of Parliament who will have no fear speaking for Sikkim in the parliament.”
Coming down heavily on the sitting Lok Sabha MP of Sikkim Democratic Front, Prem Das Rai, Bhutia reportedly said “we have already seen him selling off Sikkim completely in the entire country” as he accepted the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (2016), “which is completely against the interest of our people”.