The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha allotted almost half the seats in three hill municipalities to women

Darjeeling, Nov. 10: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has allotted almost half the seats in three hill municipalities to women who had proved their mettle in the party’s intensive agitation for statehood. The Morcha today announced the candidate list for Darjeeling, Kurseong and Mirik municipalities which will go to polls on December 11. Although 11 seats are reserved for women in the Darjeeling civic board, members of the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha will be fielded in 15 of the 32 wards. The Nari Morcha was allocated so many seats by the parent organisation as a large number of women were at the forefront of strikes and demonstrations in the movement for Gorkhaland in the past three years. In the civic polls, one-third of wards are reserved for women. The dominant party in the Darjeeling hills has ensured a fair deal for women in Mirik too. “Of the nine wards in Mirik, three are reserved for women according to the Election Commission roster. But we have nominated women to contest polls in four wards,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri. It is only in Kurseong that the Morcha did not nominate more women than what is reserved for them by the Election Commission. The Morcha today nominated women to seven seats in the Kurseong municipality. The civic body has a 20-member board. The Morcha has not yet finalised the candidate list for the 23 wards of the Kalimpong municipality although it has decided to make L.B. Pariyar, a retired IAS officer and a member of the party’s study forum, the chairperson in case of a victory. Giri said the party had given preference to women keeping in mind their contribution to the movement. “We had announced earlier that the party would acknowledge the contribution made by the Nari Morcha to the statehood movement,” said Giri. Three women had shed blood in the Gorkhaland agitation spearheaded by the Morcha since 2007. While two women died in police firing at Sibchu earlier this year, a bullet fired allegedly from a GNLF leader’s house killed another activist, Pramila Sharma, in Darjeeling in June 2008. The Morcha has chosen candidates, party sources say, after hearing the public opinion. “We assembled all our supporters and asked them to choose candidates for the respective wards. It was only in some wards where nobody had a clear mandate and we had to draw lots to choose the nominees. In few cases, we directly picked up the candidates. Our selections were made keeping in mind various criteria and one was definitely the candidate’s involvement in the movement,” said a Morcha leader. Party insiders said the number of women vying for party tickets was also huge. “Most of the wards in Darjeeling had at least one woman interested in getting a party ticket,” said a source. Observers believe that the active participation of the Nari Morcha in the agitation has propelled a lot of women into active politics. The filing of nominations started on November 8 and will close on November 15. The Morcha candidates will start filing papers from tomorrow. Urmila Rumba, a Nari Morcha core committee member, said she was happy that the leadership had selected women candidates far more than expected. “However, I want to say, not as a party member, but as a feminist that at least one post of the chairperson in any of the four municipalities should be given to a woman so that we get more responsibilities to discharge,” she said. TT