Sanchaman Limboo and Nar Bahadur Bhandari: who will emerge the winner?At Gangtok's tourist-filled Mahatma Gandhi Chowk, the charismatic Nar Bahadur Bhandari, Sikkim's former 'dictator', still beams at the public from the rain-soaked posters plastered on lamp-posts. And with good reason too. Just a month after he was deposed in what was widely seen as a New Delhi-engineered revolt, Bhandari is back on the centre-stage of the Himalayan state's murky politics.In a wily move last fortnight, Bhandari and 15 of his supporters resigned from the Assembly. Remarkably, these resignations were followed by that of Bhandari's arch rival Pawan Chamling, the founder of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF). This reduced the strength of the 32-member Assembly to a minority of 14 MLAs (besides the Speaker), who still support Chief Minister Sanchaman Limboo's SSP(S) government.Bhandari's masterstroke caused obvious consternation among his opponents both in Gangtok and in New Delhi. Faced with an impending threat of President's Rule, Limboo rushed to Delhi to plead his case. He won some comfort when Narasimha Rao - apparently stricken with cold feet at the prospect of falling into Bhandari's trap - finally gave Limboo a week to establish his authority and restore normalcy. And after his latest meeting with the prime minister, an emboldened Limboo announced that his party would merge with the Congress(I). The Congress(I) spokesperson V.N. Gadgil confirmed that the proposed merger would be put before the CWC. But with Bhandari threatening to take the tussle to the streets, Limboo still has to win the full support of the Congress(I). Clearly, he hopes that the Congress(I)'s sympathetic noises will help him to win back a couple of MLAs and raise his support to a respectable 16 (in a 32-seat house). Limboo has been clutching at all available straws to achieve that goal, even announcing his intention to ask the election commissioner to hold by-elections for the vacated assembly seats - an unlikely prospect since state Assembly polls are scheduled for November.Bhandari's gleeful supporters credit him with a strategy of deceptive simplicity: first allowing Limboo to win the confidence vote in the Assembly by keeping himself and his supporters away from the House and then effectively calling the bluff on Limboo's claim that he enjoyed majority support, by orchestrating mass resignations. In fact, Limboo may well have won the vote of confidence with or without Bhandari's presence. But the fact remains that after losing his majority, Bhandari was able to strengthen his hand by winning back four ruling SSP(S) MLAs. Limboo maintains that two of the resignations were made under duress and will not be accepted until the MLAs appear before the Speaker.Limboo came to power in the firm belief that his party would be embraced by the Congress(I) which wanted a foothold in the tiny Himalayan state. But by striking back before there had been any significant movement in this direction, Bhandari plunged the central Congress(I) leadership as well as Limboo into confusion. After the resignation drama, the Congress(I) procrastinated on the issue of allowing the SSP(S) to merge with it, causing Limboo to panic. Bhandari is an old hand at such games of one-upmanship. In 1984, he was ousted in a political coup but within a month he had returned to power by toppling the government headed by Bir Bahadur Gurung (who is now chief adviser to Chamling's SDF). And in 1989, he made history of sorts, when his Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) won all the 32 seats in the State Assembly, throwing all opposition parties into limbo. He has now capped that feat.Sikkim's political cauldron has been kept on the boil by the communal tensions that precipitated the crisis. The revolt against Bhandari was sparked off by rumours that he was behind the Finance Ministry's decision to Withdraw income tax exemptions for the minority Lepcha and Bhutia communities. Bhandari responded by playing to the sentiments of the majority Nepalese community - an obvious strategy, since most of Limboo's MLAs were Lepchas or Bhutias. As the first chief minister from a Nepalese OBC community, Limboo also tried to play an ethnic card of his own, and on June 2 his government issued a gazette notification recognising and declaring OBCs as socially and economically backward in line with the Mandal Commission report. In doing so, Limboo angered Chamling, who has projected himself as a champion of the OBCs. Chamling felt his thunder was being stolen. He then proceeded to make common cause with his old enemy, Bhandari, against the new chief minister who had only recently been his ally.With confusion deepening by the day, Limboo has taken to talking tough: "If he (Bhandari) launches an agitation to force the Centre to dismiss my government, I will launch a bigger counter-agitation. If he brings 100 boys to create trouble, I will bring 200 boys." But it will take more than such rhetoric to wipe the smile off Bhandari's face.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jul 15, 1994--- ENDS ---
