• Source:JND
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Baichung Bhutia, former captain of the Indian football team and vice-president of Sikkim Democratic Front, has quit the electoral politics, he announced on Tuesday. Announcing his retirement from politics, the Football legend said that 'electoral politics is simply' not for him and he realised it after the results of 2024 Sikkim elections. Notably, in the recently concluded assembly elections in the state, Bhutia lost to Rikshal Dorjee Bhutia of the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha by a margin of 4,346 votes in the Barfung seat.

This was Bhutia's sixth electoral defeat in the last 10 years of politics. The football star had also flouted a political party, Hamro Sikkim Party, which he later merged with the Sikkim Democratic Front.

"After the 2024 election results, I have had the realisation that electoral politics is simply not for me. I am therefore quitting all forms of electoral politics with immediate effect," Bhutia said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Baichung fought the Sikkim assembly polls from the Barfung seat on the ticket of SDF, however, he along with the party lost badly in the elections. The Sikkim Democratic Front was reduced to a single seat by the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, which won 31 out of a total of 32 assembly seats.

"My only regret is that I felt I had great ideas with regard to the development of sports and tourism which given a chance, I would have loved to implement and thus contribute to the growth of the state in a very honest and sincere way. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I am certain there will be more people with better ideas to do so," Bhutia said.

He congratulated the winning SKM and its president Prem Singh Golay for winning the trust of the public.

"The people of Sikkim have given them a resounding mandate and I hope the SKM govt will work to fulfil their promises and take Sikkim to greater heights across all sectors," he said.

"I can only say with utmost honesty and humility that my intention in politics was to do good, for the people of both state and country," he added.