In a confounding move, Krishna Kumari Rai has quit as the MLA from Namchi-Singhithang just a day after she took the oath of office. Ms Rai is the wife of Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, whose party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), swept the recent elections, winning 31 of 32 Assembly seats as well as the lone Lok Sabha constituency in the state.
Mr Tamang is in Arunachal Pradesh to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pema Khandu, who is returning as chief minister.
Ms Rai, who was contesting the Assembly elections for the first time, had won with a margin of 5,302 votes. She had secured 71.6 per cent of the votes polled, second only to Chief Minister Tamang, who had got 72.18 per cent of the votes in Soreng-Chakung.
While the reasons for her decision are not known, newly elected Speaker Mingma Norbu Sherpa, also from the SKM, accepted her resignation on Thursday. The Namchi-Singhithang constituency is now vacant.
The development comes three days after at least two people died in flash flood in Namchi district.
