KOLKATA: Former Indian football team captain Bhaichung Bhutia and other imminent Sikkimese individuals floated a new political party named ‘Hamro Sikkim Party’ in New Delhi on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday which was telecast through Facebook live, Bhutia said he was always treated as an ‘outsider’ in Trinamool Congress, which he quit in February, and did not agree with the party’s stand on Gorkhaland statehood issue.
“Though I had played and made my name in Bengal, I was always considered an ‘outsider’ in TMC. Also, contrary to the party line, I believe that people of Darjeeling can have other options (apart from remaining a part of West Bengal) and I still stick to it,” he said.
Speaking on the 2019 Sikkim Assembly elections, Bhutia said the elections will be a fight between ‘black money and clean money’. Highlighting alleged corruption of the present regime, Bhutia urged Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling to lift the ban on entry of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “If they are clean, they need to prove it,” he added.
The party will be formally launched in Sikkim within two weeks where the name of the party president and the CM candidate for the Assembly elections will be declared. “This is not my party. This is a party of the people of Sikkim. If my party wants, I will contest the elections,” the footballer said.
Bhutia also said his party will focus on unemployment, high suicide rate, drug abuse and disproportionate development in the state.
“While we have a fragile environment, what is the need to have 29-30 hydel power projects? On the other hand, despite having so many power projects, uninterrupted power supply has still not reached a large part of the state. And while we vouch for organic farming, agricultural lands are being taken away by pharmaceutical companies. We need development but a sustainable one. Even today, a tarred road has not reached my village,” he added.
Speaking on the 24-year-rule of the incumbent Sikkim Democratic Front government,
Bhutia said that any member of his party will be given chance to any position only twice be it that of Chief Minister, party president or even MLA.
Bhutia also claimed that the Nepali-speaking residents of the state have got a raw deal since the formation of the state in 1975 and said that his party will work for the Nepali-speaking Sikkimese.