The 35-year-old incumbent MP garnered 1,64,396 votes, comfortably outpacing Basnett, who received 83,566 votes.

Postal ballots will be taken up first for counting while votes in the EVMs will be counted later, officials said.

The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), erstwhile ruling party for 25 years until 2019, is embarking on the elections under a new avatar termed SDF 2.0.

The SDF has also brought back Ashish Rai into the fold for the Gangtok constituency's Arithang seat.