Gangtok, May 16 (Inditop) The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling seemed to set to return to power for the fourth time in Sikkim as counting of votes cast for elections to the 32 assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha seat was underway Saturday.
Counting began at 8 a.m. for 12 assembly constituencies in the Sikkim East district, three constituencies in North Sikkim, nine constituencies in Sikkim West and nine constituencies in Sikkim South.
Till 10 a.m., five assembly results were declared – all in favour of the SDF. The party candidate P.D. Rai also bagged the Lok Sabha seat, defeating K.N. Upreti of the Congress by a margin of over 3,000 votes.
SDF candidate Aam Prasad Sharma defeated Congress president N.B. Bhandari by a margin of 1,000 votes to wrest the the Singtam-Khamdong assembly seat in East Sikkim.
In the same district, the West Pendam constituency was won by the SDF’s Neeru Sewa. She defeated Congress candidate Jagdish Cintury by over a thousand votes.
T.T. Bhutia of the SDF bagged the Kabi-Lungchok constituency of North Sikkim, beating Ugen Bhutia of the Congress. The Dzongu constituency was won by Sonam Gyatso of the SDF.
Barfung constituency in West Sikkim was won by Dawcho Lepcha of the SDF against Aden Tshering of the Congress.
Bhandari also stood for election from the Soreng constituency in West Sikkim but was trailing in the vote count.
