GUWAHATI: Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, better known as PS Golay whose Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) swept the Assembly elections to retain power, is known in the state as a ‘rebel’ leader who has had a meteoric rise in politics.
The diminutive Golay (56) shot to fame nationally in 2019 when the SKM had ousted the country’s longest serving Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) from power. Chamling was in office for nearly 25 years. The locals fondly call Golay the “common man’s chief minister’ while the SKM says his is a ‘Garib Ka Sarkar’.
Born in West Sikkim, Golay had graduated with a degree in humanities from Darjeeling Government College in 1988. He had joined a government school in 1990 as a teacher but quit the job in 1993 to follow his passion – social work and politics. He started participating in the SDF’s political activities and served the party as state youth convenor and vice president.
He was first elected to the Assembly in 1994 from the Soreng-Chakung constituency in West Sikkim and appointed as a minister. He continued serving as a minister in the next two governments (1999-2004 and 2004-2009).
Soon, he fell apart with Chamling by openly expressing his dissent against the chief minister. He and other disgruntled SDF leaders resigned from the party and founded the SKM in 2013.
In the 2014 polls, the SKM had bagged 10 of the state’s 32 seats to emerge as the second largest party after the SDF. Even as the SKM was fast growing, Golay was disqualified from the Assembly in 2017. He was convicted on December 28, 2016 for misappropriating funds in a cow distribution scheme when he was serving as animal husbandry minister (1994-99).
He had challenged his conviction but the HC and the SC upheld the verdict. He served a jail term from 2017 to 2018. In the 2019 state polls, SKM won 17 seats to oust SDF from power and Golay was sworn in as CM.
How he shot to fame
PS Golay (56) shot to fame nationally in 2019 when the SKM had ousted the country’s longest serving Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) from power. Chamling was in office for nearly 25 years. The locals fondly call Golay the “common man’s chief minister’ while the SKM says his is a ‘Garib Ka Sarkar’. The CM is known as the state’s ‘rebel’ leader.