Bhutia Lepcha Convention 2013

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In a bid to mobilise the Bhutia-Lepcha community of Sikkim, the Bhutia-Lepcha Protection Force (BLPF) launched a national-level convention under the auspices of SIBLAC on 8th December 2013.

The leaders across the political spectrum representing the Bhutia-Lepcha community along with 13 BL MLAs were invited to the convention 'March to Gangtok' attended by around 2500 members of the community. The seats reserved for the elected representatives of the community remained empty.

Dwelling at length on the sanctity of Article 371F of the Constitution inserted as part of the 36th Constitutional Amendment that facilitated the merger of the erstwhile Buddhist Kingdom with India in 1975, the convention also took up the issue of the restoration of the Nepali seats, previously reserved in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly and done away with as per an amendment passed in 1980.