Gangtok: The BJP's Sikkim president DB Chauhan resigned on Tuesday, claiming that the central leadership's indifference towards the state unit forced him to take the decision. Chauhan said the party's central leadership did not take up the state unit's "rightful demand" of joining the Prem Singh Tamang government in Sikkim even as the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) wanted an alliance with the BJP.
"I am resigning from the post of the Sikkim BJP president with immediate effect after getting totally disillusioned with the central leadership's indifference to sort out various issues affecting the functioning of the party's state unit," he told PTI.
"I had personally taken up with Nadda-ji (national president JP Nadda) the demand of the 12 BJP MLAs of joining the government in Sikkim but he apparently did not take up the matter with the Sikkim chief minister," Chauhan claimed.
Home Minister Amit Shah did not spare five minutes to meet the party's state leaders during his visit to Sikkim two months ago, he claimed.
"This says volumes of the national leadership's apathy towards the state unit," he added.
Chauhan said the party's national leadership has failed to appoint someone as the leader of the party's legislature unit despite having 12 MLAs in the state.
Chauhan served as the state BJP president for six years.
It was during his tenure that the BJP won two assembly seats in a by-election, besides engineering the defection of 10 MLAs from the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in 2019 to emerge as a major political force in the Himalayan state with 12 legislators.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)