Gorkha Janamukti Morcha leaders support TMC after quitting BJP

Gorkha Janamukti Morcha founder Bimal Gurung along with 17 councillors announced in a press conference in Kolkata that they were being utilised merely as a voting machine by the BJP. They quit BJP as their promises were not fulfiled.

Kolkata: Gorkha Janamukti Morcha founder Bimal Gurung on Thursday announced that 17 councillors of the local municipality, who had joined the BJP, have returned to the GJM and would work to ensure the win of the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 assembly polls, in a press conference in Kolkata

The 17 councillors of the Darjeeling Municipality joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi in June last year, giving the saffron party a majority in the 32-member board. The incident took place after the saffron party won 18 of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats, its best-ever victory in the state.

Gurung paraded the 17 councillors in the conference, where they pledged support to the TMC in the assembly elections likely to be held in April-May next year. He accused the BJP of reneging on its promise given to the GJM and the native people, who elected the saffron party's Lok Sabha candidates three times from Darjeeling.

Gurung, who was inactive for three years, resurfaced in Kolkata on October 21 and pledged support to the TMC, after quitting the NDA, triggering discontent in the GJMs Binoy Tamang faction which has been supporting the Mamata Banerjee-led party. Justifying the reason behind leaving the NDA, Gurung said, "I had been with the BJP for 17 years. They never fulfiled their promises and we were being utilised as a voting machine. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was always found to be fulfilling her assurances."

Read:GJM leadership breaks silence, will meet Mamata for 'peace' in the hills

The GJM leader, against whom over 100 cases including those under the UAPA have been slapped for alleged acts of arson and violent attacks on policemen in the past years, said that he will teach the BJP a lesson in the polls in North Bengal. "I believe in karma. I believe in assurances. In the coming days, we will do whatever is required to make the TMC emerge as winner," he said adding that he wished to see Banerjee as the chief minister for the third time in 2021.

About recent comments made by Tamang that he will not be part of any process with Gurung against whom many cases are pending, the GJM founder skirted the issue. "I have not come here to say anything about Binoy Tamang. He spoke his mind. I will not comment," he said.

The Tamang faction is now in power in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), an autonomous district council in the Darjeeling hills. The chief minister held a meeting with Tamang in Kolkata on Tuesday and he had expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the deliberation.

Tamang, who has been opposed to the proposal of Gurung's return to the hills, had also said that the people of the Darjeeling do not want him back. Rallies were taken out in the hills by the Tamang faction opposing Gurung's entry since October 22, prompting the fugitive leader's loyalists to organise counter-rallies welcoming him.

The picturesque Darjeeling had repeatedly witnessed violent agitation over the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, the latest being in June 2017, when the hills saw a 104-day-long strike, called by Gurung, over the issue. The strike also led to a split in the GJM, with Tamang, once a deputy to the outfit's supremo Gurung, taking over the reins of the party and expelling the boss.

Although the GJM faction led by Gurung had continued to align with the BJP, the other camp, headed by Tamang, joined hands with the ruling TMC in the state.

With inputs from PTI