It was seven o’clock on a pleasant April morning in Gangtok, and I let myself out of the Gangtok Drift, a cozy hotel just above the Khangri Petrol Pump in Tadong for an early morning walk. I couldn’t help noticing several vehicles coming up the road displaying the National Flag, and some with the lampshade logo of the ruling SKM party.

Half a kilometre or so up the road, there was a posse of policewomen obviously maintaining ‘law and order’, and what appeared to be a number of women congregating in a small clear space by the roadside.

I asked one of the young policewomen on duty what was going on. “It’s a rally about women’s empowerment,” she said. And what a massive rally it was going to be, judging from the humongous traffic snarls all over Gangtok.

True enough. It was a rally in support of the Nari Shakti Vandan  Adhiniyam 2023, ( also known as the Women’s Reservation Act,) as well as the Constitution (131st  Amendment Bill) which was up before the Lok Sabha that day: 17^th April.

I was in Sikkim as an invitee to the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Sikkim Express, the state’s only surviving English newspaper, and basically on ‘holiday mode’, but the nose for news never rests!

Just Another Event

People I bumped into that morning didn’t really know what was going on. Said one veteran scribe, “It’s just another event to divert from the real issues of corruption and sell out to the BJP.  Golay came to power and the SKM party has become ‘Sikkim Karyakram Morcha’.  (The K actually stands for Krantikari, which means revolutionary, Karyakram means ‘event’).

Another said, “It’s a women’s rally organized for the SKM party. The SKM party has 31 out of 32 seats in the State Assembly. So When Golay calls, everyone rushes to Gangtok”.

Embarrassment and lamentation

Media reports recorded a footfall of about thirty thousand, rallying on from Deorali Tata Stand to the iconic Paljor Stadium, led by three ladies of substance: the Deputy Speaker of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly Rajkumari Thapa, and SKM women leaders Kala Rai and Pamin Lepcha.

Many are not amused. They point out that they voted for a Sikkim party, and not the BJP.

“Golay is enamoured by his BJP mentors and has developed this habit of bowing to Modi. He basks in the reflected arrogance of his handlers, and no doubt expected the Bill to go through. What better way to curry favour than an advance Thankyou rally,” said a close friend of the former Chief minister Pawan Chamling.

However, in New Delhi, the defeat of the Constitution (131^st  Amendment Bill), clearly upset the BJP apple cart.

In Gangtok, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha leaders, led by the ever-energetic Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang Golay expressed their shock and disappointment that the Bill was defeated.

The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) pointed out that the women’s rally held in Sikkim on April 17 was not organised in support of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, but was instead carried out to advance the political agenda of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) government.

SDF women’s leader Komal Chamling in a press meet said that the rally had caused embarrassment to Sikkim at the national level. She said there was no justification for organising a rally in the name of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, as the Act had already been passed unanimously by all political parties in September 2023.

Komal pointed out that the SKM government, without fully understanding the issue, brought women to the forefront and organised the rally, following which Union ministers and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been misusing photos and videos of the rally for their political benefit.

The Sikkim Perspective

While the ‘Delimitation Act dressed up in a Sari’ is being roundly condemned by a sizeable number of political analysts as being toxic and detrimental to the interests of the South and the Northeastern  states, why is Sikkim singing a different tune?

Under the BJP government’s proposed Delimitation Bill 2026 (introduced in April 2026 along with the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill), Sikkim would see no change in its Lok Sabha representation. The plan was to expand the total Lok Sabha strength from 543 to 850 seats (815 for states and 35 for UTs) using 2011 Census population data, enabling proportional redistribution and simultaneous implementation of one-third women’s reservation.

Sikkim currently has one Lok Sabha constituency—the entire state is treated as a single seat (Sikkim Lok Sabha constituency), reflecting its small population of approximately 6.1 lakh (2011 Census). Under the proposal, states and UTs with a single Lok Sabha seat (including Sikkim, Nagaland, and Mizoram) were explicitly exempted from any increase in parliamentary seats.

So, what’s the scenario for Sikkim? We retain  exactly one Lok Sabha constituency. So, there’s no  internal delimitation. Why? Since there is only one seat covering the whole state, there is no need to redraw boundaries or create new segments.

There could however be an Assembly impact. State assembly seats could expand proportionally (current strength: 32), but Lok Sabha allocation stays frozen at one.

SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling told media persons that had the Amendment  succeeded, Sikkim could hope for an assembly strength of 45 to 48 seats! Deputy Speaker Rajkumari Thapa said that the women of Sikkim lost their chance for a 33 percent political representation. Sikkim is hoping that the delimitation process would help address an important and emotive issue that has been hanging fire for decades: the question of reserved seats for the Limboo and Tamang communities.

The Chief Minister is a savvy politician, and he knows how to milk a scene for dramatic effect, even though it is evident that the defeat of the Constitutional Amendment is no great blow for Sikkim. Delimitation is bound to happen, even if it is delayed until the next census.

Sikkim will surely get its additional assembly seats. It’s a matter of time, patience, and sound strategy.

[Frank Krishner is a veteran journalist with a long experience of editing and reporting from Sikkim]

  naked truth, Northeast, Pawan Chamling (Sikkim), Prem Singh Tamang-Golay, Sikkim