Bhaichung Bhutia to launch Sikkim-based party

SILIGURI We will formally announce the date for the launch of the party in Delhi on Thursday. The new party will have credible people with a clean image on board...

BHAICHUNG BHUTIA, Former footballer

: Former Indian football captain, Bhaichung Bhutia said on Wednesday he is ready to set up his political outfit which he would announce in Delhi on Thursday.

The party would be based in his native state of Sikkim.

“We will formally announce the date for the launch of the party in Delhi on Thursday. The formal launch would take place in Sikkim in three to four weeks,” Bhutia said.

“The new party will have credible people with a clean image on board 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 social media platforms Facebook and Twitter .

Though he kept everyone guessing about his next move, BJP and the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), Sikkim’s main opposition party, was in the race to woo the wily former striker.

A senior former leader of opposition party SKM said, “There is an urgent need of a new party with people having clean image leading it, particularly after P S Golay, the SKM president, was sentenced in a corruption case.”

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

Immediately after Bhutia had announced his resignation from Trinamool Congress, Union minister and BJP leader, Kiren Rijiju had tweeted, “Football icon & former Indian captain Baichung Bhutia’s resignation from TMC was expected. He told me he has high regards for Mamata Banerjee but (was) unable to cope with the situation. He desires to do more for football & Sikkim. My best wishes to Bhaichung for his future endeavour.”

The statements led many to believe that the footballer would join the BJP.

Bhutia contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling and the 2016 Assembly polls from Siliguri on Trinamool tickets, but lost on both occasions.