Bhutia to announce Sikkim-based party in Delhi today

SILIGURI: Former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia on Wednesday said he is ready to set up his political outfit which he will announce in Delhi on Thursday. The party will be based in his native state Sikkim.

“We will formally announce the date for the launch of the party in Delhi on Thursday. The formal launch will take place in Sikkim in three to four weeks,” Bhutia said. “The new party will have credible people with a clean image and will work for clean politics in the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim,” said the former footballer. Handpicked by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to represent the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Darjeeling, Bhutia quit Bengal’s ruling party on February 26. He had announced his resignation on Facebook and Twitter.

Though he kept everyone guessing about his next move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), Sikkim’s main opposition party, were in the race to woo the former striker. A former leader of SKM said, “There is an urgent need of a new party with people having clean image leading it, particularly after PS Golay, the SKM president, was sentenced in a corruption case.”

In the 2014 assembly elections, SKM won 10 of 32 assembly seats in Sikkim. The SKM is considered a challenger for five-time chief minister Pawan Chamling, who is also the president of Sikkim Democratic Front.