In a major political development ahead of the parliamentary and Assembly elections in Sikkim, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced a pre-poll alliance with Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM).

BJP national general secretary, Ram Madhav, who is also in-charge of the Northeast made the announcement in New Delhi after two consecutive rounds of meeting with SKM president P S Golay and his team, according to reports.

Madhav in his social media accounts on Friday morning, shared:

‘Sikkim Krantikari Morcha is the main opposition party in Sikkim. The president and MLAs of the SKM party came down to Delhi on Thursday and met BJP President Amit Shah. Today, together with our State party leaders, they came to meet me and finalized the understanding between BJP and SKM.’

Madhav was of the opinion that both parties should fight the upcoming Parliament and Assembly elections together in Sikkim, adding that details about seat sharing will be worked out in the next couple of days.

Earlier, Golay accompanied by two SKM MLAs Kunga Nima Lepcha and Sonam Lama along with senior party leaders had met Shah on Thursday. The meeting was also attended by Madhav.

However, the SKM has said the alliance with BJP has not been officially finalized as the tie-up is still under process with the regional party seeking firm commitment from the Modi government on pending political demands of Sikkim.

According to SKM spokesperson Jacob Khaling, the SKM placed the demands for restoration of Nepali seats in the Assembly, Limboo-Tamang seat reservation in the Assembly, ST status for the left-out Nepali communities of Sikkim, a concrete commitment that there would be no dilution or threat to Article 371F, IT exemption for the left-out old business community of Sikkim and that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not implemented in Sikkim under any circumstances.

The SKM spokesperson further added that the party was satisfied with the positive assurances given by the BJP party during the Delhi talks on these pending political issues of Sikkim.