Darjeeling (West Bengal): The picturesque Darjeeling hills in West Bengal is gearing for a pitched battle between two Gorkhas in the Lok Sabha elections, as development and restoration of democracy top the poll planks, relegating the long-standing demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
For the first time in three decades, the call for a separate Gorkhaland state is not a poll issue in the hills, with parties, including the indigenous Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), stressing on minimum wages for tea workers, potable water, electricity, education and employment. The constituency goes to polls April 18.
It will be a keenly-fought contest between the two warring factions of the GJM – one led by its supremo Bimal Gurung and his one-time protege Binay Tamang. The former is supporting BJP’s Raju Singh Bisht, while Tamang is in favour of Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Amar Singh Rai. The saffron party also has the support of another prominent hill party, the GNLF.
“The polls will establish who among Gurung and Tamang emerges the supreme leader of the hills. The people are with Gurung as Tamang has compromised with the TMC in order to serve his own vested interests,” Loksang Lama, the working president of the Bimal Gurung faction of the GJM, said.
The ruling TMC in West Bengal is yet to win the Darjeeling seat even once since its inception in 1998, while the BJP has emerged victorious twice.
“We are stressing on the overall development of the hills, which it has been deprived of for the last 10 years. Our agenda is development. The BJP MPs have done nothing for the people of the hills,” said TMC candidate Rai. The TMC is against the separate state of Gorkhaland.
The BJP and Gurung’s faction of the GJM feel restoration of democracy, which has been ‘missing’ following the 104-day long strike in the hills over the demand of Gorkhaland in 2017, is the most important aspect in the polls.
“People here will vote for restoration of democracy in the hills. They haven’t forgotten the atrocities committed by the TMC during the agitation,” BJP candidate Bisht said. He asserted a ‘permanent political solution’ is the need of the hour in Darjeeling, but remained non-committal on the demand for a separate statehood.
Darjeeling, dominated by the Gorkha community, besides the Lepchas, the Sherpas and the Bhutias, has a total of 16 candidates in fray, including TMC’s Rai, BJP’s Bisht, CPI(M)’s Saman Pathak and Shankar Malakar of the Congress.
The constituency has a total of 15,98,863 voters out of which 8,06,298 are male and 7,92,543 female.
PTI