Hill 5 to meet MPs in Delhi | Ex-Morcha flock in Trinamul

Hill 5 to meet MPs in Delhi

Darjeeling, Feb. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to send a five-member delegation to New Delhi on Sunday to meet MPs of various national parties in an effort to assess the current political mood in the capital vis-à-vis the creation of Telangana.

The delegation will comprise Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Darjeeling municipality chairman Amar Singh Rai, member of the party’s study forum Binod Prakash Sharma, leader of the Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation Bijay Pradhan and central committee member D.K. Pradhan.

The decision to send a Morcha delegation ahead of Bimal Gurung’s visit to Delhi, which has been scheduled for the first week of March, was taken at a central committee meeting of the party held at the Singamari office here today.

“A five-member delegation will leave for Delhi on January 24 and meet MPs of various political parties,” said Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri.

Party sources said the Morcha had also formed various other teams, which would tour other states to meet political leaders. These teams have been instructed to mobilise support in favour of Gorkhaland.

The Delhi team is expected to get a sense of developments that are taking place with regard to the creation of Telangana.

“The Morcha wants to assess the current mood in Delhi regarding the formation of Telangana. The party’s future agitation depends on the Centre’s decision on Telangana,” said a source in the Morcha.

The team will provide the feedback to Gurung so that the Morcha can formulate its strategy before his visit to Delhi. “The present Delhi team is largely expected to do the groundwork for Gurung’s visit to the Capital,” said a source. 

Ex-Morcha flock in Trinamul
- Inclusion of Dooars leaders to strengthen party, says Mukul 

 

Feb. 22: Trinamul Congress general secretary Mukul Roy said this evening that 20 Terai and Dooars leaders who had quit the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha late last year had expressed willingness to join the ruling party.

“They (the Morcha leaders) had expressed willingness to join our party and work for the development of the population dwelling in the Terai and Dooars,” Roy said.

“We have accepted them in the party and will utilise them according to their competence and capacities. Their entry in the party would bring us the support of a large section of people living in the foothills of north Bengal,” Roy said in Calcutta this evening.

According to Trinamul leaders in north Bengal, today’s development was significant as Trinamul would now have Gorkha leaders, required to win people’s support in the Dooars.

“There was a dearth of Gorkha and tribal faces in the party. We needed leaders and workers from these communities…. The joining of the (former) Morcha leaders would plug one of the gaps, not to mention of current relations we are having with John Barla and his associates who have a substantial control over the tribal populace in the Dooars and Terai,” a senior Trinamul leader from Jalpaiguri said.

Padam Lama, a former central committee member of Morcha based in Birpara of Jalpaiguri who joined Trinamul today, said: “Time and again, we were told by central committee leaders that they would carry out the demand raised by us to include the Terai and Dooars under Gorkhaland. However, all of them fell silent after joining the GTA and did not take any step to revive the demand for inclusion of these areas.”

Source: The Telegraph