Gangtok: Pawan Kumar Chamling was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim for the third consecutive term today (May 21, 2004).

Governor V Rama Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to him and his relatively smaller council of ministers at a function held in the Raj Bhawan premises.

Unlike his last term when he headed a 17-member cabinet, Chamling has restricted the size of his ministry to 12 in view of the Election Commission's prescribed limit for cabinets at 15 per cent of the Assembly strength.

Elections 2004-Where is India heading...
Political Parties in India He has retained most of the old hands in the ministry and inducted only two new faces - Menlom Lepcha and Somnath Poudyal.

Besides Chamling, the 11 other Ministers sworn in today for the single-tier 12-member cabinet were former speaker Kalawati Subba, Dorjee Dazom Bhutia, Garjaman Gurung, Hishey Lachungpa, Kedar Nath Rai, P S Tamang, Dorjee Tshering Lepcha, Ram Bahadur Subba, S B Subedi, Menlom Lepcha and Somnath Poudyal.

All the 11 belong to Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) which swept the polls recently bagging 31 out of the 32 assembly seats besides getting away with the lone Lok Sabha seat to return to power in the State for the third time in a row.

The portfolios of the ministers are yet to be decided.