Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) is a regional political party in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

. It was the ruling party in

from 12 December 1994 to 23 May 2019.

History

The party was founded by

Pawan Kumar Chamling Pawan Kumar Chamling Rai (born 22 September 1950) is an Indian politician and writer who served as the 5th Chief Minister of Sikkim from 1994 to 2019. He is the List of longest-serving Indian chief ministers, longest serving Chief Minister in ...

in 1993. It has ruled the Sikkim state from 1994 to 2019 with Pawan Kumar Chamling as the

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

. The party consolidated its position sweeping the 1999 and 2004 state elections. It won 31 of the 32 assembly seats in the 2004 election. In the 2009 assembly election, the party made a clean sweep, winning all 32 seats. It also retained the lone

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

seat. In 2014 assembly elections, SDF won 22 seats and retained power. In May 2016, after the BJP led NDA formed its first government in

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

, a new alliance called the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) was formed with BJP leader

Himanta Biswa Sarma Himanta Biswa Sarma (born 1 February 1969) is an Indian politician and lawyer serving as the 15th and current Chief Minister of Assam since 2021. A former member of the Indian National Congress, Sarma joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 Au ...

as its convener. The Chief Ministers of the north eastern states of

, Manipur,

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

too belong to this alliance. Thus, the Sikkim Democratic Front joined the NDA led NEDA.

resigned as CM after 2019 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election as former member Prem Singh Tamang's Sikkim Krantikari Morcha 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 the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

and in the same month two other legislators joined Sikkim Krantikari Morcha. Thus making

the only MLA of his party. The party won only 1 seat in the 2024 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election, with former CM

losing the election from both the seats he contested. Later, its only MLA defected to Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, thus reducing its strength in the legislative assembly to zero.

Frontal Organisation

*Youth Wing *Student's Wing *Women's Wing *Labour Wing *Cultivators and Organic Farmers Wing *Ex-servicemen Wing *Scheduled Tribe Welfare Wing *Scheduled Caste Welfare Wing *Drivers Wing *Traders Wing

List of Chief Minister

Electoral records

; Sikkim Legislative Assembly election ; Lok Sabha election, Sikkim

External links

Chief Electoral Officer, Sikkim

Sikkim Assembly, Sikkim

References