Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang interview: ‘BJP does not work to finish off regional parties … it worked for Northeast by joining forces with such outfits’

Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang made his foray into politics in 1994 at the age of 25 after quitting his job as a government schoolteacher. Since then Tamang, popularly known as P S Golay, has never looked back.

Tamang entered the Assembly that year, winning on a Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) ticket from the Soreng-Chakung Assembly seat. Between 1994 and 2009, he was a minister in Sikkim and held important portfolios such as Animal Husbandry, Building and Housing, Ecclesiastical, and Industry. He broke away from the SDF and floated the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) in 2013 and the following year, he was one of the 10 MLAs to be elected on an SKM ticket. Five years later, Tamang ended his former party’s two-and-a-half-decade rule, with the SKM winning 17 of the state’s 32 constituencies.

On a day the SKM, which is a part of the BJP-led NDA stormed back to power by winning 31 seats, Tamang speaks to The Indian Express about the reasons for his party’s victory and the road ahead.

Excerpts:

What helped your party get re-elected?

Tamang: Good governance, welfare schemes in the past five years, and our dreams for a better state in the coming years.

What was your government’s biggest achievement?

Tamang: Despite the setbacks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the floods last year, we introduced new schemes and worked in the health, social, and education sectors. We initiated several programmes for our mothers and sisters. Our Bahini Scheme, aimed at reducing the dropout rates of female students due to a lack of availability and accessibility of sanitary napkins has been a hit. Thousands of girls in classes 9 and above were provided free sanitary napkins under the scheme.

Last year, we launched the Aama Yojana to equip