A map showing Assembly constituencies of Sikkim.
Credit: DH Illustration
Kala Rai of SKM won the Upper Burtuk seat in the 2024 Legislative Assembly elections in Sikkim, by a margin of 2568 votes.
The Upper Burtuk constituency in the East district of Sikkim went to polls on April 19, 2024. Over 4.64 lakh voters in the state were eligible to exercise their franchise in the Legislative Assembly elections this year, which are being held alongside the Lok Sabha elections. However, unlike some states which are voting in multiple phases, Sikkim voted in a single phase, for both the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls.
The term of the 32-member Legislative Assembly is slated to end on June 2, 2024.
What happened in the 2019 Legislative Assembly elections?
Upper Burtuk is one of the 15 Assembly seats won by the SDF in the 2019 Legislative Assembly elections.
In the 2019 elections, Upper Burtuk constituency had 15231 voters, and saw a voter turnout of 76.8 %.
SDF candidate Dilli Ram Thapa won the Upper Burtuk constituency in the 2019 elections, with a margin of 757 votes.
The 2019 Legislative Assembly elections in Sikkim was largely a bi-polar contest, with the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) dividing all 32 seats amongst themselves, and capturing nearly 95% of the votes in the state.
While the SKM bagged 17 seats, the SDF came a close second, with 15. National heavyweights BJP and the Congress also contested the polls, but failed to win a single seat, with the BJP garnering a mere 1.62% vote share, and the Congress managing an even lesser 0.77%.
Subsequently, after the polls, the SKM, which made its debut in the 2014 Assembly elections in Sikkim, formed the government, with party founder Prem Singh Tamang as the Chief Minister.
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