Trinamul poll plan

Siliguri, June 17.TT: Trinamul Congress leaders in the hills today said they wanted to set up a separate central committee for the GTA area and start preparing for the polls scheduled in July.

“We have joined Trinamul but are yet to get any formal responsibilities and official posts in the party. Our workers and leaders are waiting for decisions from Calcutta and want that a separate committee in the GTA area (in the hills) should be formed to take care of party activities,” said Rajen Mukhia, a former GNLF leader who joined Trinamul a week ago.

Mukhia is one of the first few leaders to have joined Trinamul at an event held at Panighata in Kurseong last Monday that was attended by, Gautam Deb, the north Bengal development minister and north Bengal core committee chairperson of Trinamul.

“Discussions were held with Deb who is also the Darjeeling district president of Trinamul. He has insisted on the formation of committees, right from the subdivisional level to local levels in all three hill subdivisions — Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling,” Mukhia said.

“We, however, want a central committee for the GTA area to monitor the three subdivisional committees and other lower-tier committees. The central committee, in turn, will be under the district committee of Darjeeling,” he said.

Mukhia, asked on Trinamul’s campaign in the hills, said initially, they would try to create a support base and launch committees in all 45 constituencies of the GTA, as was announced by the state government on May 26 in Darjeeling.

“We are waiting for a formal hand-over of responsibilities by the party to us. Once it is complete, a substantial portion of people across the hills, including leaders and workers of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, will join Trinamul,” the former GNLF leader said.

“After these people come under our party flag, we will open units in each of the 45 constituencies of the GTA and launch our campaign, mentioning the development projects taken up by the Trinamul-led state government in the hills, the state’s sincerity in forming the GTA and the need to join a national party and desert regional ones, which have so far, failed to meet people’s aspirations,” he said.