Gangtok: Pahalman Subba, Sikkim’s first elected Lok Sabha MP, passed away on Thursday in Gangtok at the age of 90 following a prolonged illness.
Subba, who won the 1980 election on a Sikkim Janata Party (SJP) ticket, served as an MP until 1984. He was the second MP of Sikkim and the first to win a contested election. Previously, Congress leader Chhatra Bahadur Chhetri had been elected unopposed in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections after Sikkim joined India.
Subba was part of the pro-Sikkim and anti-merger faction led by Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal and former Chief Minister late Nar Bahadur Bhandari. They successfully ousted Sikkim’s first Chief Minister Lendup D. Kazi’s party from power in 1979, restoring Sikkim’s pride and dignity.
In 1984, Subba led dissidents within the first Congress Government to unseat Chief Minister late Nar Bahadur Bhandari. He later turned his focus towards former Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, then an MLA in the Bhandari-led Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP), and successfully unseated Bhandari again in late 1994.
Subba eventually lost faith in Pawan Chamling and was vocal against the Chamling regime as recently as 2018. He was a long-time campaigner for Limboo Tamang communities’ Assembly seat reservation.
Chief Minister Prem Singh Golay visited Subba after his death in the hospital on Thursday morning, extending his condolences to Subba’s family. “I offer my prayers for the departed soul to rest in eternal peace,” Golay said. He also visited the Central Referral Hospital, where Subba passed away, to pay his respects. “It was a solemn moment, honouring the memory of a respected individual who was also the first elected MP from Sikkim,” he added.
Subba’s mortal remains will be transported to his ancestral village Timburbung in the Soreng district for cremation on Friday, according to his family. The state government has announced that no entertainment activities will take place in the state on the day of Subba’s funeral.
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