Leaders file nominations in hills, plains ABGL names candidates

 VIVEK CHHETRI

A rally by the CPM before K.B. Wattar filed his nomination in Darjeeling; (right) Harka Bahadur Chhetri after filing his election papers in Kalimpong on Monday. Pictures by Suman Tamang and Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Darjeeling, March 28: The ABGL today declared its candidates for the three hill seats, but the party did not rule out the possibility of reaching on a consensus with the CPRM to fight the elections together.

Bharati Tamang, the widow of former ABGL chief Madan Tamang, will be the candidate in Darjeeling, while Tribhuwan Rai and S.K. Pradhan will be fielded in Kalimpong and Kurseong respectively.

Rai and Pradhan are the presidents of the ABGL’s Kalimpong and Kurseong subdivisional committees.

Although the CPRM has already named its candidates for the three seats, the two parties were still holding negotiations to chalk out a strategy to fight the polls together. “There is still a strong possibility of both the parties fielding consensus candidates. Let us wait till April 4 (the last day to withdraw nominations),” said Dawa Sherpa, the working president of the ABGL.

The CPRM had earlier said it wanted to field Bharati Tamang in Darjeeling and had proposed the names of Chhatray Subba and Saran Dewan for the other two seats. Both are currently lodged in jail for their alleged role in an assassination bid on GNLF president Subash Ghisingh in 2001.

However, the CPRM decided not to press hard for the candidature of Chhatray and Dewan. The party will field L.M. Lama in Darjeeling, B.M. Rai in Kurseong and J.B. Rai in Kalimpong.

“There is still time for the consensus candidates. If a deal is clinched, there should be no problem in withdrawing them,” said R.B. Rai, the president of the CPRM.

The ABGL and the CPRM are already unanimous on the nomination of Bharati Tamang’s candidature. Both the parties hope she can cash in on the people’s sentiments over the murder of Madan Tamang.

“I will seek justice from the people. I want peace and democracy to be restored in the hills so that no other children are murdered the way my husband was,” said Bharati.

The woman admitted that she was a novice in politics. “I had to go through a lot of suffering. Even though I did not have a political background, I had to join the ABGL as the party too felt my husband’s vacuum,” said Bharati, who is now the president of the ABGL.

The ABGL will be fighting the elections on a number of issues, including Gorkhaland. “Our stand is clear on Gorkhaland. We do not need any stepping stone (reference to the Sixth Schedule and the interim set-up) to achieve our goal. Peace and restoration of democracy are also important at the moment,” said Sherpa.

The ABGL will also highlight frequent strikes in the hills in the campaign.

“Our statehood agitation must not be turned into a mockery. Strikes should be called as the last resort. Education, which plays a major role in the hill economy, has to be safeguarded and the embargo on the dispatch of tea will only hurt our people as garden owners will cut down the bonus rates. We also need to set up industries dealing with software as we have a huge pool of English speaking and computer savvy youths in the hills,” said Sherpa.

Meanwhile, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha candidates filed their nominations in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong and brought out huge rallies. K.B. Wattar of the CPM also filed his nomination in Darjeeling today.

The Morcha also decided today to back BJP candidate Manoj Tigga in Madarihat.