Gangtok, Oct 5: The 84th birth anniversary of former chief minister of Sikkim late Nar Bahadur Bhandari was commemorated on Saturday at Gangtok.

The event was attended by Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Golay and cabinet ministers.

Bhandari born in 1940 in Malbasey, Soreng district, served as the second Chief Minister of the State from 1979-94, becoming the first CM of Nepali origin.

He was the founding leader of Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) started in 1984. Prior to SSP, he also founded the Sikkim Janata Parishad in 1977 which he dissolved in 1984.

SSP went on to win all 32 seats, a rare feat then, in the 1989 State elections.

He also served as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha briefly in 1984 in the 8th Lok Sabha as an independent candidate.

In 1994, Bhandari lost a vote of confidence in the state assembly, and he resigned as chief minister. In 1994, SSP lost the assembly elections to the Sikkim Democratic Front led by Pawan Kumar Chamling.

SSP also lost the 1999 assembly election. In the 2004 state assembly elections, Bhandari ran under the Congress party, but the party lost the election, winning only one seat in the assembly. He served as a member of the legislative assembly from 1994 to 2004.

Bhandari is popularly remembered for his efforts to include Nepali language in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution, which was finally recognized in 1992 with his wife Dil Kumari Bhandari serving as a Lok Sabha MP then.

In May 2007, he was sentenced to prison for one month in a corruption case. In 2014, he was convicted in a CBI corruption case.

Bhandari died on 16 July 2017 following spinal surgery.

Sikkim CM Golay took to his social media to pay tribute to the ‘visionary leader’. He wrote, “Bhandari’s unwavering commitment to the welfare of the people and his farsighted vision for Sikkim’s development resulted in several landmark achievements. The inclusion of the Nepali language in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution was a monumental act which not only safeguarded the linguistic rights of the Nepali-speaking community but also elevated their cultural identity at the national level.”

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