The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has “officially” announced its decision to
end its decade-old association with the BJP-led NDA, which could affect
the poll arithmetic in at least four Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal.
Among
them is the prestigious Darjeeling seat, which has provided the BJP
with a toehold in the region since 2009, and which no party can hope to
win without the Morcha’s endorsement.
Morcha president Binay
Tamang has handed over a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee
informing her of the decision and expressing willingness to join a
“third party” alliance. Tamang, along with Morcha general secretary Anit
Thapa, had attended the Opposition rally at the Brigade on Saturday.
“The
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, an alliance party to the NDA for the last 10
years, would like to officially communicate to the chief convener of the
third party alliance that we are officially declaring that we are going
to pull out from the NDA alliance (and) is ready to join the third
party alliance in the centre in the upcoming 2019 elections,” Tamang’s
letter said.
With the change in Morcha leadership, it was more or less expected that Tamang would be distancing himself from the NDA.
“Apart
from remaining silent during the last agitation, the BJP has not yet
fulfilled any of the demands of the hill people,” said a source.
The
Morcha wants the “third front” to grant land rights to tea garden and
cinchona plantation workers. Even though tea and cinchona garden workers
have been living in the plantations for over a century, they do not
have any land rights (patta).
“If Mamata Banerjee takes up the land rights issue with a positive assurance, the anti-BJP front will get a head start not just in Darjeeling but also in Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Raiganj,” said an observer.
The
other Morcha demands include tribal status for 11 communities,
linguistic minority status for the Nepali language and ensuring that the
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration can access benefits from the
Union ministry of development of northeastern region (Doner).
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