Gangtok, 24 March

The BJP on Sunday announced 14 candidates for the polls to the 32-member Sikkim Assembly, even as its three outgoing MLAs resigned from the party.  The saffron party also declared that Dinesh Chandra Nepal will be contesting as its nominee from the Himalayan state's lone Lok Sabha seat.

The Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be held simultaneously in the state on 19 April.

In the list of Assembly poll candidates released by the BJP in the national capital, the state unit president DR Thapa has been given ticket for Upper Virtual, while senior leader NK Subba will contest from Maneybung Dentam. However, three outgoing BJP MLAs - Rajkumari Thapa, Sonam Venchungpa and Pinsto Namgyal Lepcha - resigned from the primary membership of the party without assigning any reason.

The BJP had contested 12 Assembly seats in the 2019 Assembly polls drawing a blank and polled a meagre 1.62 per cent of the votes. The party subsequently roped in 10 MLAs from the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) which had suffered a split. The BJP subsequently opened its account winning two by-polls in 2019 increasing its tally of MLAs to 12.