SDF wins rural polls

GANGTOK, October 29: The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has won the rural polls in the Himalayan state. The party has gained 219 gram panchayat seats and 40 zilla panchayat seats, which is the highest in the rural polls of Sikkim. Expressing satisfaction with the “landslide victory” with a 96 per cent support, senior part leader Mr BB Gooroong said: “The Opposition has been swept aside. Our victory was assured since we are a strong cadre based party,” indicating that the moment now was to plan the victory ceremony. The ruling SDF had already won 585 seats out of 889 seats in gram panchayat seats and 46 seats out of 93 zilla parishad seats uncontested even before a single vote was cast. The counting of votes went off peacefully today. “The counting was held at the zilla panchayat bhawan in Geyzing, West district in peaceful conditions,” said the DC West Mr Nitesh Kumar Jha. “That shows all parties are satisfied with the results and the way the polls were held,” he added.