Pawan Chamling Becomes India’s Longest-Serving Chief Minister, Surpasses Jyoti Basu: Know All About The Sikkim Leader

Gangtok, April 29: Pawan Chamling, Chief Minister of Sikkim scripted history in India on April 28 by becoming the longest serving Chief Minister of the country. On April 28, Chamling surpassed the record held by Jyoti Basu as the longest-serving Chief Minister of India. Meanwhile, Dr Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, who is the longest-serving CM from the BJP and Naveen Patnaik, Odisha’s longest-serving CM—are in the race to clinch fourth and fifth terms in their states.

67-year-old CM of Sikkim Chamling has been at the helm of Sikkim since 1994 while Basu held the Chief Ministerial post in West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. Chamling is set to take the record to another distance given that there is still one year more to go in his fifth term as the Chief Minister of Sikkim.

Here’s all you need to know about Pawan Chamling:

1. Chamling, born on September 22, 1950, is the fifth and incumbent Chief Minister of the northeastern state- Sikkim.
2. Chamling is the second chief minister in India after Jyoti Basu, of West Bengal to govern a state five terms in a row.
3. Chamling’s party Sikkim Democratic Front winning the 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 Sikkim Legislative Assembly elections.
4. Chamling, who started his political journey in 1973 is the founder president of the Sikkim Democratic Front, which has governed the state for five successive terms since 1994
5. Prior to establishing the Sikkim Democratic Front, Chamling served as Minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992 in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari cabinet.
6. In 1982, Chamling was chosen the president of Yangang Gram Panchayat unopposed. After three years, he became an MLA.
7. In 1989, he won the Assembly election with a record 97 percent of the total vote cast and became a Cabinet minister in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari ministry.
8. In 1993, Chamling founded the Sikkim Democratic Front that secured a majority in the Assembly polls the next year.
9. Since 1993, he has seen only success—in 2009, Chamling’s popularity was so high that he won all the 32 Assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat.
10. Under Chamling’s leadership, Sikkim is one of the fastest growing states as its GDP between 2011-12 and 2016-17 expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.05 percent to $2.93 billion whereas the Net State Domestic Product grew at a CAGR of 11.30 percent to $2.58 billion.

In the last week, Chamling said Sikkim is steadily moving towards being a 100 percent literate state. Addressing a public meeting, during his ongoing 32-day tour of the state, in the East district yesterday, Chamling said his government has given top priority to education and ensured that students from poor families get access to quality education.

The Chief Minister said that his government has set up 26 colleges and seven universities in the past two years to provide quality education to students. A medical college and a veterinary college will be set up in the state and Sikkimese students will be given free education in these colleges, the chief minister said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 29, 2018 10:23 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).