Gorkhaland or Sixth Schedule?

DARJEELING: Six kilometres separated them, but the chill between mentor and protégé was colder than the misty morning in poll-day Darjeeling. The ballot box brought Subhas Ghisingh and Bimal Gurung the closest they have ever been since Gorkha Janmukti Morcha drove the GNLF supremo out of the Hills three years ago.
Gurung, the Morcha chief, was among the first voters to line up at booth number 23/76 at the Subash Primary School in Barapatta Bong tea estate, about 5 km from Darjeeling town on Monday. His turn came around 8.30am. Ghisingh turned up at booth number 23/29 at Ramakrishna Senior B Ed College at 10.30am — the late vote quite unlike the man who ruled Darjeeling for 20 years. Surrounded by security personnel and GNLF cadres, Ghisingh made his way to the polling booth as the GJMpolling agent and supporters looked on.
GNLF could not field a polling agent at Ghisingh's booth. It was much the same story for the other anti-GJM parties. They could give polling agents in very few booths. The Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League could not field a polling agent even in the party chief, Bharati Tamang's, booth 23/128A, near her home.
Ghisingh put up a brave face. "We did not give polling agents as our party is strong enough," he said. "There is no need to have polling agents because this time the Election Commission has provided voters with slips, making it easy for them to identify their booth".
Tamang said they did not have the manpower to give polling agents in all the booths. She hinted at intimidation, too. "The polling agents have to deal with outside pressures," she said, without naming any party. The brutal murder of her husband, Madan Tamang, last year looked set to change the political equation in the Hills.
District election officer Mohan Gandhi refused to comment. "I have nothing to say. It is the prerogative of the political parties to give polling agents. But I can say that polling has been entirely peaceful," he said.
Bimal Gurung seemed in a confident mood. "It will be a hundred percent victory for our party candidates. People believe in us and will support us," he said as he waited for his turn to vote. Gorkhaland was still his target, he said, rejecting allegations that GJM was more interested in achieving an interim council. "I have only one aim and that is to achieve a separate state. I have already asked the party's three candidates to concentrate on the Gorkhaland state demand in the assembly," said Gurung. "People have already rejected the sixth schedule (Ghisingh's plan). There is no place for it in the Hills".
Ghisingh, too, stuck to his guns. "There can neither be a separate Gorkhaland state nor a Union Territory. The only plausible solution is to form a new Gorkha Hill Council under the sixth schedule provisions," he said. On being asked how it felt to be back in the Hills, the GNLF chief, looking dapper in a tie, smiled and said: "The same as before."
He admitted to being unsure of the results. "It can go either way. We may win or lose but our party will remain strong," he said.-(The Times Of India)