BJP using Limboo-Tamang issue as weapon in Sikkim: MP PD Rai

Gangtok: Sikkim Democratic Front’s (SDF) sitting MP Prem Das Rai said that Bharatiya Janta Party has made the Limboo-Tamang seat reservation issue as a “strategic political weapon” by denying the political reservation right now, despite it being at their desk for well over two years.

Rai was reacting to BJP general secretary Ram Madhav’s statement that the party will provide the Limboo-Tamang (LT) reservation only after the 2019 elections. He said, “The BJP government had over two years to study the issue yet they denied it despite the ruling from Supreme Court of India. They have agreed that it was within the realms of the central government. They could have given it but they didn’t. Therefore, now they are saying that they will give [LT reservation] proves that it was a strategic political weapon. We have already expressed that a certain section of population within Sikkim didn’t want the two communities to get it. He proved the point we had been making and we thank him for that.”

The SDF spokesperson further claimed that the state government has adequate evidence to show that the Centre was in agreement with the state’s proposal. “They have not told the state government that we have to revise it [the proposal for reservation for Limboo-Tamang tribes] neither have they said that they will not give it. The Supreme Court of India has emphasised … that the seats need to be given and it stands as regrettable that BJP couldn’t give the same,“ Rai said, adding that the Prime Minister and the BJP president are in alignment with the view of chief minister Chamling, however, Ram Madhav’s statement just before the election is “very loose” in nature.