Legendary footballer Bhaichung Bhutia‘s Hamro Sikkim Party (HSP) will contest all 32 Assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim.
This was announced by the former iconic footballer of India while addressing a press conference on Sunday.
He also said his party has coined the slogan ‘Hamro Sikkim, New Sikkim’ for their poll campaigns.
In order to take on the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), the Hamro Sikkim Party is forming an alliance with other regional parties, said Bhutia adding that he is hopeful of forging partnership with a local party soon, reports News 18.
Bhutia, the working president of HSP, also denied any possible alliance of his party with any national party like BJP.
Coming down heavily on the Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling‘s Sikkim government for pursuing ‘divisive politics’ on the basis of caste and religion, Bhutia said development will be the ‘sole agenda’ of his party, if their party comes to power.
Bhutia also clearly mentioned that the HSP will not be give tickets to any individual who has criminal records.
Bhutia earlier had announced that he might contest the Assembly polls.
The report quoted 43-year-old Bhutia, who is a former captain of Indian football team, as saying: “My commitment to stay in state politics is long-term, and I am also going to contest the forthcoming Sikkim Assembly polls and take any responsibility that my party entrusts on me.”
It may be mentioned that former footballer Bhutia had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling and the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016 from Siliguri as a Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate.
However, he failed to win those elections. In February last year, Bhutia resigned from Trinamool Congress to launch a new political party – Hamro Sikkim Party.