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 longest serving Chief Minister in India, surpassing

Naveen Patnaik Naveen Patnaik (; born 16 October 1946) is an Indian politician and writer, who served as the 14th List of Chief Ministers of Odisha, Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024. His 24-year reign is the List of longest-serving I ...

. 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 the ...

. He also served as the Leader of the opposition, Sikkim Legislative Assembly in the year of 2019. He represents the Namchi-Singhithang constituency in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly since 2019 till 2024 and the Damthang constituency from 1985 to 1994. 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 Rai and Asha Rani Chamling Rai. Chamling is also a prolific

Nepali language Nepali (; , ), or ''Gorkhali'' is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official and most widely spoken Languages of Nepal, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''lingua fr ...

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 and 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 Jyoti Basu (born Jyotirindra Basu; 8 July 1914 – 17 January 2010) was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest ...

, of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

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 Chief Minister of Sikkim for the fifth consecutive time on 21 May 2014 by Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil, the

Governor of Sikkim The governor of Sikkim is the head of the Indian state of Sikkim. The governor is appointed by the president of India and is the nominal head of the state's executive power. This is a list of the governors of Sikkim. There are 19 governors ...

. He became the chief minister for a fifth time, a record previously held by

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. 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 tenth Sikkim Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly. The term of the tenth Sikkim Legislative Assembly ended on 27 May 2019. Schedule of ele ...

as former member Prem Singh Tamang's

Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (translation: ''Sikkim Revolutionary Front'') is a political party in the Indian state of Sikkim which is the ruling party of Sikkim since 2019. Prem Singh Tamang, P.S. Golay, a member of the Sikkim Legislative Assembl ...

party formed the government by winning 17 seats out of 32. SDF party won the remaining 15 seats. Two of the SDF legislators had won from two seats each of which one had to be given up, reducing their strength to 13. 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 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

. Thus making Chamling only MLA of the party. Chamling lost the 2024 Sikkim Legislative Assembly election, marking his first electoral defeat.

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 Sikkim Sangram Parishad politicians 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 Nepali language movement activists

Personal life

Political career

Electoral records

See also

References

External links