Aditi Tandon
Tribune News ServiceNew Delhi, April 7
Citing dangers in the conduct of free and fair polls in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, the CPM today petitioned the Election Commission (EC) against the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM), blaming it for the disruption of democratic process in the area.
The CPM alleged that the GJM was not allowing any political party, expect the BJP, to canvas in the area and was fomenting ethnic divide between the people of hill and plain regions, for electoral gains.
Questioning the “secret political deal” between BJP leader LK Advani and GJM chief Bimal Gurung, CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury today asked the saffron party to come clean on the matter. “How has the BJP united with a force that is out to disrupt unity of people in West Bengal?” Yechury asked.
The party also raised the issue with Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and SY Qureishi, who are said to have promised “instantaneous action.” The party said it had been petitioning the district and state election officers for long but to no avail.
“We informed the EC about how the GJM was not earlier allowing BJP candidate Dava Sherpa to campaign in the area. But things changed after the deal between Advani and the GJM, which has now promised a red carpet welcome to Jaswant Singh, the new BJP candidate from Darjeeling,” said Yechury and CPM central committee member Nilotpal Basu, adding, “Let it be known as to what kind of deal have these two struck and how the BJP justifies being a national party when it supports an outfit with such divisive ideology?”
The CPM referred to how the West Bengal BJP unit was opposed to the idea of Gorkhaland whereas the central BJP leadership has in its manifesto promised to consider the proposal of both Gorklaland and Telangana.
The Marxists are particularly miffed at the GJM openly thwarting the all-party meeting convened by the EC in the area. “The GJM is threatening the Tibetan, Muslim and other minority communities with dire consequences if they do not vote for the Morcha-supported candidate,” said the CPM in its representation to EC.
The Marxists have asked the commission to shift its official meetings with party representatives out of Darjeeling to Siliguri.
A particular reference in the representation is to a CD of an allegedly vitriolic speech of Gurung delivered in the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club on March 27. “He is literally threatening everyone against voting for other parties and even saying he has a mechanism to find out who voted for whom,” Basu said, citing the CD.
