Nar Bahadur Bhandari

2nd Chief Minister of Sikkim, India

Nar Bahadur Bhandari (5 October 1940 – 16 July 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of the state of Sikkim from 1979 to 1994. He briefly served as Member of Parliament representing Sikkim Lok Sabha constituency from 1984 to 1985. He was the founding leader of the Sikkim Sangram Parishad. He was popularly remembered for his efforts to include the Nepali language in 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India. He was awarded with prestigious Jagadamba Shree Purasakar for his contribution for Nepali language. He was the first Indian chief minister of Gorkha origin. He also served as the president of Bharatiya Nepali Bhasha Parisangh until his death. He is popularly known as the architect of modern Sikkim.

Nar Bahadur Bhandari was born on 5 October 1940 in Malbasay village, near Soreng, West Sikkim He earned his BA degree from Darjeeling Government College and worked as a school teacher for some years before entering politics. His wife, Dil Kumari Bhandari, is a former member of parliament (Lok Sabha) from Sikkim. He has three daughters and son.

Bhandari founded the Sikkim Janata Parishad in 1977. This party won the state assembly election in 1979, and he became the chief minister for the first time on 18 October 1979 In May 2007, he was sentenced to prison for one month in a corruption case. Again in the 2009 assembly elections, the Congress party under Bhandari failed to win any seat in the state assembly. In the 2014 election, his party unanimously supported a new political party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, under the leadership of PS Golay. Bhandari, despite his conviction in a corruption case continued campaigning for SKM which managed to win only 10 seats out of 32. Prior to his death, he was closely involved with the SKM party; he gave his last speech at the SKM Foundation Day Celebration in Singtam on 4 February 2017. His notable political accomplishments are free education from elementary to graduate school, establishing nearby schools within a radius of 3 to 4 km for all residents, providing drinking water to every household in Sikkim, building a network of roads to all major villages in Sikkim, bringing all rural areas onto the electric grid, and the setup of vast healthcare centers.

Bhandari became the president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) after he had merged SSP with the Indian National Congress in 2003. In May 2013, he was reinstated as the president of SSP. In 2014, he was convicted in a CBI corruption case. Bhandari died on 16 July 2017 following spinal surgery. His final rites were performed with full state honours by the current chief minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling, including a 21 gun salute. In a very rare gesture, the family of the former king of Sikkim sent their royal flag to be wrapped around Bhandari's body during the state funeral.