Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung and seven central committee leaders of the party including the three MLAs from the hills today left for Kolkata to attend Thursday’s public programme of the Trinamool Congress.
The TMC is slated to hold a massive public meeting tomorrow at the Brigade Ground and the GJM brass has been invited to attend. The invitation by TMC president and chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, is seen as part of her efforts to cement the restored ties with the GJM after they tanked since last year’s renewed statehood movement.
Besides Gurung, the other team members are Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Kurseong MLA Rohit Sharma, Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan and central committee leaders Uday Dewan, Phobee Rai, Dawa Lepcha and Prakash Gurung. GJM general secretary Roshan Giri, who is already in Kolkata, will also be joining the group.
It is being speculated that the GJM leaders and the chief minister will also discuss about the forthcoming Lok Sabha election although Gurung refused to mention anything in this regard as he left Darjeeling.
On Tuesday though, during the foundation laying ceremony for a passenger ropeway in Kurseong, the GJM president did say the party’s election strategy would be discussed February 5 at the GJM Patleybas office.
“We have not taken any decision on the Lok Sabha election yet. All matters relating to it will be taken up on February 5 at a meeting of the central committee,” said Gurung.
Now that relations between the two sides have warmed up, speculations are rife in the hills of a poll alliance. The situation is ideal for both the TMC and GJM given the fact that both parties are expected to benefit from the Lok Sabha election. In all likelihood, the TMC will back the candidate fielded by the GJM. It may be mentioned here that during the GTA election last year, the TMC chief had “politically” withdrawn her party’s candidates in the last moment to give the GJM a free run.(EOIC)
The TMC is slated to hold a massive public meeting tomorrow at the Brigade Ground and the GJM brass has been invited to attend. The invitation by TMC president and chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, is seen as part of her efforts to cement the restored ties with the GJM after they tanked since last year’s renewed statehood movement.
Besides Gurung, the other team members are Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Kurseong MLA Rohit Sharma, Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan and central committee leaders Uday Dewan, Phobee Rai, Dawa Lepcha and Prakash Gurung. GJM general secretary Roshan Giri, who is already in Kolkata, will also be joining the group.
It is being speculated that the GJM leaders and the chief minister will also discuss about the forthcoming Lok Sabha election although Gurung refused to mention anything in this regard as he left Darjeeling.
On Tuesday though, during the foundation laying ceremony for a passenger ropeway in Kurseong, the GJM president did say the party’s election strategy would be discussed February 5 at the GJM Patleybas office.
“We have not taken any decision on the Lok Sabha election yet. All matters relating to it will be taken up on February 5 at a meeting of the central committee,” said Gurung.
Now that relations between the two sides have warmed up, speculations are rife in the hills of a poll alliance. The situation is ideal for both the TMC and GJM given the fact that both parties are expected to benefit from the Lok Sabha election. In all likelihood, the TMC will back the candidate fielded by the GJM. It may be mentioned here that during the GTA election last year, the TMC chief had “politically” withdrawn her party’s candidates in the last moment to give the GJM a free run.(EOIC)