All in bag but plains thorn pricks Dooars nudge on victory day

Darjeeling, Aug. 2.TT: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today won all 45 seats in the GTA but Bimal Gurung made it clear he was still eyeing the Dooars and Terai and would explore possibilities to give representation to the region in the GTA Sabha.

Moments after the results of the 17 seats were declared — the Morcha had won the other 28 seats uncontested, Gurung said he was “determined” to get representatives of the Dooars and Terai, especially John Barla, into the GTA Sabha.

“I am determined to get representatives from the Dooars and Terai into the GTA Sabha. I am 100 per cent confident that John Barla (the adivasi leader supporting the Morcha’s demand to include the plains in the GTA) will be in the Sabha,” the Morcha chief said.

The GTA Act allows only five members to be nominated to the Sabha — two the Morcha has already nominated, and three that Mamata Banerjee has named — so how Gurung will manage to accommodate Barla is a question many were asking today.

Yesterday, Morcha leader Roshan Giri had revealed the three names Mamata had given the Morcha, which effectively blocked the hill party’s move to name Barla as a representative from the plains.

All five nominees are hill residents.

Today, asked about what alternative the Morcha had if it wanted to bring leaders from the Dooars and Terai in the GTA, Gurung said: “Nominating five members to the GTA is a privilege of the government but we have still managed to get two names proposed by us accepted by the government. We will also get representatives from the Dooars and Terai by passing a resolution in the GTA Sabha.”

Gurung then mentioned “invitee members” to the GTA, without explaining what the term meant. But the GTA Act does not have any such provision either.

According to GTA Act clause 5 and its sub-sections , the Sabha shall consist of 50 members, excluding ex-officio members.

Forty-five would be elected on the basis of “adult suffrage”, the Act says, from territorial constituencies. Five members shall be “nominated by the governor”.

The sections also say that the MP, MLAs and the chairpersons of municipalities of the region shall be ex-officio members of the GTA. They shall not have the right to vote.

The GTA Sabha would in total have 58 members then — 45 elected, 5 nominated, one MP, three MLAs and four civic chiefs.

If Gurung wants to include more nominated members in the Sabha an amendment would be required in the GTA Act that would have to be passed by a simple majority in the present Assembly.

District officials dealing with the formation of the GTA Sabha also could not say if a resolution passed by the GTA Sabha to have “invitee members” was viable. “As of now there is no such provision in the Act,” said an official.

Yesterday, after Giri announced Mamata’s move to name three nominees, a senior Trinamul leader in Siliguri made it clear the chief minister had done this to send a message to the Morcha that it must not seek to legitimise its Gorkhaland movement in the Dooars and Terai, which do not fall in the GTA area.

Gurung said the GTA’s priority would be to improve education, tourism and road condition. “We also raised the issue of bad roads during our meeting with the chief minister in Calcutta recently,” he said.

Gurung also said he wouldn’t take back in Morcha rebel leader Sanchabir Subba into the fold.

“There is no question of taking him back in the party,” said Gurung.

The 45 GTA councillors will meet at Gorkha Rangamanch Bhawan at 10.30am tomorrow to elect the chairman of the Sabha.

The swearing-in is on August 4 which Mamata is scheduled to attend.

The Siliguri police commissionerate’s opening by the chief minister, scheduled for tomorrow, has been postponed to August 6 as the government has not yet come out with a gazette notification.