Bhandari: Trouble ahead

Gangtok, May 28: Seven senior members of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC), including party vice-president L.P. Tiwari and AICC member Biraj Adhikari, have resigned from the party.

The latest mass resignation has given another blow to the party that is fast losing its sheen in state politics ever since its defeat in the last Assembly elections.

The resignations, the reasons for which were not cited, have been sent to party president Sonia Gandhi.

Recently party general secretary Sherhang Subba had quit and formed his own outfit, the Sikkim Progressive Party. A former minister, Sonam Chyoda Lepcha, had also resigned from the party earlier this month.

Apart from Tiwari and Adhikari, others who have resigned include general secretary Arun K. Rai, West district president of the SPCC J.K. Rai and joint secretary Padam Subba and two senior executive members of the women?s wing Sanchamaya Tamang and Bishnu Maya Gurung.

According to Adhikari, the main reason for the resignation was that Congress workers felt the party was ?direction-less? under Nar Bahadur Bhandari.

?The state unit cannot meet the aspirations of the Sikkimese anymore,? he said.