Pawan Kumar Chamling (born 22 September 1949) is an Indian politician and the former

Chief Minister of Sikkim The chief minister of Sikkim is the head of the executive branch of the Government of Sikkim, the subnational authority of the Indian state of Sikkim. The chief minister acts as the head of government in the state, chairs the Council of Minist ...

. Chamling is the Founding President of the

Sikkim Democratic Front Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) is a regional political party in the Indian state of Sikkim. It was the ruling party in Sikkim from 12 December 1994 to 23 May 2019. History The party was founded by Pawan Kumar Chamling in 1993. It has ruled th ...

, which governed the state for five successive terms since 1994. Chamling's 24.4 year stint (December 1994 to May 2019) is the longest ever by a chief minister of any Indian state, surpassing Jyoti Basu's 23 years in West Bengal. Prior to establishing the Sikkim Democratic Front, Chamling served as Minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992 in Nar Bahadur Bhandari's cabinet.

Personal life

Chamling was born in Yangang, South Sikkim to Nepali parents Ash Bahadur Chamling and Asha Rani Chamling. Chamling is also a prolific

Nepali language Nepali (; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a '' lingua franca''. Nepali has official status in the Indian st ...

writer, and recipient of the ''Bhanu Puraskar'' (2010) awarded by Sikkim Sahitya Parishad. He writes under the pen name Pawan Chamling. Mr. Chamling has two wives an 8 children (4 sons and 4 daughters).

Political career

Chamling was elected as the president of Yangang Gram Panchayat in 1982. In 1985, he was elected to the

Sikkim Legislative Assembly The Sikkim Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Sikkim state in north-eastern India. The seat of the Legislative Assembly is at Gangtok, the capital of the Sikkim state. History Sikkim became the 22nd state of India by ...

for the first time. After being elected for the second time from Damthang, he became the Minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992 in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari cabinet. After a series of major political upheavals in Sikkim, Chamling formed the

on 4 March 1993. Chamling is the second chief minister in India after Jyoti Basu, of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

to govern a state five terms in a row, with his party

winning the 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014

elections. His party first came to power in Sikkim after winning the 1994 Sikkim assembly elections. His popularity kept soaring in Sikkim due to his developmental work and for maintaining peace. In 2009, his party

won all 32 assembly seats in

. In 2012, he faced allegations of corruption and Bhandari, his predecessor as CM, predicted that Chamling would go to jail if he lost his power. And his former comrade Tamang (Golay) developed differences with him and floated his own party. These developments created political challenge for him, but he managed to win the assembly elections of 2014, albeit with a much reduced majority. Following win in 2014 assembly election, he was sworn in as the

for the fifth consecutive time on 21 May 2014 by

Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil (born 11 February 1941) is an Indian politician and ex-officer of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Since October 2019, he is the Member of Lok Sabha from the Satara constituency from Maharashtra, India. P ...

, the

Governor of Sikkim The governor of Sikkim is the head of state of the Indian state of Sikkim. The governor is the representative of the president of India in the state and is the nominal head of the state's executive power. This is a list of the governors of S ...

. He became the chief minister for a fifth time, a record previously held by Jyoti Basu who ruled West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. His party SDF won 22 out of 32 assembly seats in the 2014 legislative assembly election. 18 months after the 2014 elections, on 30 November 2015, 7 out of 10 opposition MLAs joined the SDF party under the leadership of Pawan Chamling. The ruling front had 29 out of 32 assembly seats in the state. On 18 January 2016 Prime Minister of India

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

made a two-day visit to the state to declare

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Silig ...

as the first and the only "organic state" in the country, as it has fully implemented organic farming statewide. Chamling resigned as CM after

2019 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Sikkim on 11 April 2019 to elect the 32 members of the ninth Legislative Assembly. The term of the ninth Sikkim Legislative Assembly ended on 27 May 2019. Schedule of election Results Results (P ...

as former member

Prem Singh Tamang Prem Singh Tamang (born 5 February 1968), better known as P. S. Golay, is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Sikkim and founding leader of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM). Before forming the party, he was a key member of ...

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (translation: ''Sikkim Revolutionary Front'') is a political party in the Indian state of Sikkim which was the ruling party of Sikkim in 2020. P.S. Golay, a former member of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly, was one of ...

party formed the government by winning 17 seats out of 32. SDF party won the remaining 15 seats. But in August 2019, 10 MLAs quit his party to join

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

and in the same month two other legislators joined

. Thus making Chamling only MLA of from the party.

Electoral records

;

election

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Chamling, Pawan 1949 births Living people Chief Ministers of Sikkim Sikkim Democratic Front politicians People from Namchi district Indian Gorkhas Nepali-language poets Indian National Congress politicians from Sikkim Sikkim MLAs 2019–2024 Indian Hindus Sikkim MLAs 1985–1989 Sikkim MLAs 1989–1994 Sikkim MLAs 1994–1999 Sikkim MLAs 1999–2004 Sikkim MLAs 2004–2009 Sikkim MLAs 2009–2014 Sikkim MLAs 2014–2019 Rai people

Personal life

Political career

Electoral records

See also

References

External links