BJP may have tacit support of Gorkhas in Darjeeling : The Tribune India

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BJP may have tacit support of Gorkhas in Darjeeling

DARJEELING:In the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal, the key contest is between the BJP and West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has struck an alliance with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) faction led by Binay Tamang and launched a high-decibel campaign to wrest the seat from the BJP.

BJP may have tacit support of Gorkhas in Darjeeling

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee (C) with candidate of the Darjeeling constituency Amar Singh Rai (L) and Gorkha Janamukti Morcha chief Binay Tamang (R) wave to supporters during a poll campaign rally. File



Shubhadeep Choudhury   
Tribune News Service 
Darjeeling, April 13 

In the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal, the key contest is between the BJP and West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has struck an alliance with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) faction led by Binay Tamang and launched a high-decibel campaign to wrest the seat from the BJP.

Amar Singh Rai, who in 2016 won from the Darjeeling Assembly segment as GJM candidate then led by Bimal Gurung, has switched loyalty and is fighting the Lok Sabha elections on the TMC ticket. On buildings lining the serpentine highway linking Darjeeling with Siliguri, one primarily sees posters and flags of the TMC candidate and a few of CPM candidate Sanat Pradhan.

But the high visibility of the TMC nominee does not tell the entire story. “We will talk through the ballot on April 18,” says Rekha, a housewife. “We shall never forgive CM Mamata Banerjee for the death of 13 boys in the 2017 police firing during the movement for Gorkhaland,” says Purna Tamang, an ex-serviceman.

Except for a group of taxi drivers in the city’s Chowrastha area, shouting “Modi, Modi”, support for the BJP candidate is muted. Voters fear advocating support for the BJP may get them in trouble.

“We fear the administration which is harsh on the local people,” says Praveen, a taxi driver, adding the police could implicate them in a false case. “The Mamata government is using the police as if it was TMC cadre. Naturally the people are scared to express their views,” observes Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) spokesman Neeraj Zimba.

Gurung, the fugitive GJM leader, is supporting the BJP in the election as he has done in the past. The GNLF too has extended support to the BJP. Both these parties  have not put up their candidates in Darjeeling. The demographic composition of the constituency, with four of  the seven Assembly segments outside Gorkha-inhabited areas, makes any such step imprudent.

On the absence of the Gorkhaland demand in BJP’s poll manifesto, Zimba points out that the manifesto does speak about a “permanent political solution”. In the last two elections, the BJP fielded Jaswant Singh and SS Ahluwalia, respectively,  from Darjeeling. The party candidate this time is also an outsider. Raju Singh Bisht, a young businessman,  is originally from Manipur’s Nepali settlement Kangkopi. But he is at least Nepali-speaking unlike his predecessors.  

“Nobody knows Bisht in Darjeeling,” says DN Kawas, the TMC spokesperson. Congress candidate Shankar Malakar is the sitting MLA from Naxalbari-Matigara Assembly constituency, which is part of the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.


Mamata hits out at armed Ramnavami rallies 

The BJP is misleading the people in the name of religion. Ahead of elections they are using it as a tool to divide the masses in Bengal. The culture of Bengal never supports the politics of violence.  They are taking out rallies with swords and mace. Whose throat do you want to slit with swords? Whose head do you want to smash with the mace? —  Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM

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