Former Sikkim Minister PS Tamang continues to be sidelined

pix:SikkimExpress

GANGTOK, November 15: Having suffered a series of strategic blows including losing his home turf, denied a place in the council of ministers by rookies and annexation of his new political ground by an upstart, the patience of former Sports minister PS Tamang could be sorely tested from an unexpected quarter-football or rather a football tournament.
The second LD Kazi memorial gold cup football tournament set to begin from December 2 at Chakung, West Sikkim has one missing person among the surplus in the new tournament organizing committee-PS Tamang who had kick-started the successful tournament in 2008 donning three hats of Chakung legislature, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister and chief patron of Chakung Sports Association.
Presently, Mr. Tamang has only one hat that too a differently coloured one-Burtuk MLA, far far away from his once West Sikkim stronghold.
It may be recalled that Mr. Tamang had not only played a pivotal role in starting the tournament in the memory of the first Chief Minister of Sikkim who passed away in 2007 but had also ensured the sustainability of the tournament for a decade by roping in Jal Power Corporation to sponsor the cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs for the tournament for a period of ten years.
Though he had ensured the sustainability of the LD Kazi memorial gold cup tournament, Mr. Tamang now one year later find himself out of his Chakung bastion and also serially sidelined in the SDF empire as a ‘persona non grata’.
According a Nepali daily newspaper report published today, the former organizing committee of the LD Kazi memorial gold cup football tournament has been disbanded and a new committee set up to conduct the second edition of the tournament scheduled to commence from December 2.
Area MLA of the newly amalgamated constituency of Chakung-Soreng, RB Subba who is also the State Roads & Bridges minister has been nominated as the chief patron of the organizing committee in a meeting conducted yesterday at Soreng. The State sports & youth affairs minister NK Pradhan, departmental secretary HK Karki and former legislature CB Rai are the patrons of the committee with RM Rai as the chief convener, the Nepali daily newspaper reported.
In fact, Mr. Tamang has making news despite ‘not being in news’ as the vernacular newspapers here continue to report about him going underground seen neither in his earlier stronghold areas of West Sikkim but also here in his electoral constituency of Burtuk who had given him a resounding mandate in the April-May 2009 Assembly elections.
With his voters left exasperated by his continuous MIA, it has been widely reported that the political charge of Burtuk has been handed over to a popular local person.
However, the ruling party quickly refuted the news as misleading.
Recently, Mr. Tamang has been included as one of the fourteen vice-presidents in the newly constituted central executive committee list of the SDF party, a move which is claimed to wider dimensions ranging from appeasement policy to a tactical step to give the reportedly disgruntled youth leader a long rope.
Meanwhile, premature reports have been speculating that Mr. Tamang or his supporters may show their cards at the end of this year.
Keeping aside such speculations, one cherished football tournament cup has already slipped out of the pioneer’s hand as people switch flanks to hail the rising sun.