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Only monks can vote here: The Hindu
Gangtok, Mar 23: It is an Assembly constituency with the sparsest of electorates, thinly spread across all the four districts of Sikkim. The voters are all Buddhist monks, both men and women, drawn from the Himalayan state`s 51 monasteries perched on hill-tops. The Sangha constituency, as it is referred to, is `unique in the country`, local election authorities say. Contestants for the seat could belong to any of the monasteries, nominees of any of the political parties that might choose to be i
Gangtok, Mar 23: It is an Assembly constituency with the sparsest of electorates, thinly spread across all the four districts of Sikkim. The voters are all Buddhist monks, both men and women, drawn from the Himalayan state's 51 monasteries perched on hill-tops. The Sangha constituency, as it is referred to, is `unique in the country', local election authorities say. Contestants for the seat could belong to any of the monasteries, nominees of any of the political parties that might choose to be in fray.
Special polling stations, equipped with separate voting machines, are set up in the vicinity of the monasteries, three of which are exclusively for women monks. In the coming seventh Assembly elections in the State, a total of 3096 monks, 34 of them women, will be eligible to exercise their franchise, their names having been verified by the election authorities at the time of preparation of the electoral rolls.
"Each monastery maintains a list of lamas [monks] who can apply for registration as voters", says Sikkim's Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, C D Dakhal.
"There is no official diktat on the choice of candidates which the monks are obliged to observe and never in the State's electoral history has the decision of who should be given the mandate to represent the monks in the State Assembly been unanimous," he adds.
The Sangha representative is one of the 32 members of the Sikkim Assembly. "But whatever his political allegiance what is expected of him by us is to ensure a free flow of grants for the upkeep of the monasteries and their respective centres where monastic training is imparted", says 70-year old Chamba Tsansmdup Lama, a senior monk at the 200-year-old Enchey Monastery near Gangtok. "But we have been left largely disappointed. Our requirements are rarely presented before the Government and what is doled out to us on the odd occasion is little more than baksheesh. The State's Ecclesiastical department is not responsive too", he says.
But this alleged apathy of the State authorities towards the monasteries will not be deterring Chamba Tsansmdup Lama from casting his vote in the coming polls. "There is considerable enthusiasm among the 50-odd voters from this monastery over the elections even though we believe that politics and religion should not mix," he says.
A senior teacher in the monastery's monastic school where the student body comprises 87 young lamas, he regrets that `even funds to take care of stationery expenses are not forthcoming from the Government'.
"The last such allotment of Rs. 5000 was made to us more than two years ago," he recalls.
The average voter turnout for the Sangha constituency is around 60 per cent — ample indication that monks who have chosen to devote an entire life-time to the monasteries have distinct political leanings.
The monastery precincts turn into a meeting-place for monks engaged in political discourse in the days preceding any election and "this time should not be any different," says Chamba Tsansmdup Lama who seems not to mind the pre-poll hubbub as long as the prayer-wheel keeps turning.
Special polling stations, equipped with separate voting machines, are set up in the vicinity of the monasteries, three of which are exclusively for women monks. In the coming seventh Assembly elections in the State, a total of 3096 monks, 34 of them women, will be eligible to exercise their franchise, their names having been verified by the election authorities at the time of preparation of the electoral rolls.
"Each monastery maintains a list of lamas [monks] who can apply for registration as voters", says Sikkim's Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, C D Dakhal.
"There is no official diktat on the choice of candidates which the monks are obliged to observe and never in the State's electoral history has the decision of who should be given the mandate to represent the monks in the State Assembly been unanimous," he adds.
The Sangha representative is one of the 32 members of the Sikkim Assembly. "But whatever his political allegiance what is expected of him by us is to ensure a free flow of grants for the upkeep of the monasteries and their respective centres where monastic training is imparted", says 70-year old Chamba Tsansmdup Lama, a senior monk at the 200-year-old Enchey Monastery near Gangtok. "But we have been left largely disappointed. Our requirements are rarely presented before the Government and what is doled out to us on the odd occasion is little more than baksheesh. The State's Ecclesiastical department is not responsive too", he says.
But this alleged apathy of the State authorities towards the monasteries will not be deterring Chamba Tsansmdup Lama from casting his vote in the coming polls. "There is considerable enthusiasm among the 50-odd voters from this monastery over the elections even though we believe that politics and religion should not mix," he says.
A senior teacher in the monastery's monastic school where the student body comprises 87 young lamas, he regrets that `even funds to take care of stationery expenses are not forthcoming from the Government'.
"The last such allotment of Rs. 5000 was made to us more than two years ago," he recalls.
The average voter turnout for the Sangha constituency is around 60 per cent — ample indication that monks who have chosen to devote an entire life-time to the monasteries have distinct political leanings.
The monastery precincts turn into a meeting-place for monks engaged in political discourse in the days preceding any election and "this time should not be any different," says Chamba Tsansmdup Lama who seems not to mind the pre-poll hubbub as long as the prayer-wheel keeps turning.