Sikkim Deputy CM sacked

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling on Wednesday sacked Deputy Chief Minister Pur Tsering Luksom from the ministry for anti-party activities.

Chamling, who is also the Sikkim Democratic Front president, met Governor Chaudhuri Ranvir Singh at Raj Bhavan on Monday night and took up the case with him.

Earlier, Luksom, one of the SDF's founder members, was dropped as the party's vice-president.

SDF sources said the decision to sack Luksom from the ministry was taken at an emergency meeting of the party's steering committee held at the chief minister's home at Mintokang on Monday night.

Sources said Liksom was dropped from the ministry for alleged anti-party activities and masterminding a conspiracy to dislodge Chamling.

Relations between Chamling and Luksom have been strained for some time, prompting the chief minister's loyalists to demand Luksom's ouster from the SDF.

Chamling shifted Luksom from the finance ministry in May; he was assigned the less prestigious law, science and technology portfolios during a ministerial reshuffle.

Luksom said he had no knowledge of being removed from the ministry. A new deputy chief minister will be appointed soon, SDF sources said on Wednesday.

Political observers in Gangtok say Finance Minister Ram Lepcha is a strong contendor for the post. Lepcha, a minister in Nar Bahadur Bhandari's Sikkim Sangram Parishad cabinet, won the assembly election on an SSP ticket and later switched sides. He was appointed finance minister at Luksom's expense.

The state police beefed up security arrangements in the state capital and in West Sikkim -- where Luksom's Rinsinpod constituency is located -- as a precautionary measure.

UNI