KURSEONG, 8 APRIL: The Darjeeling Hills are agog with speculations
about a possible 2014 Lok Sabha election tie-up between the Congress and
the GJMM following the Hill-based party’s president, Mr Bimal Gurung,
having thrown hints in the presence of the Union Rural Development
Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, in Darjeeling yesterday.
Mr Gurung
said his party might throw its weight behind the Congress but he added
that the support would be conditional. Though he did not elaborate on
the conditions, according to party insiders, the president would seek
commitment from the Congress on their demand for either a separate state
of Gorkhaland or Union Territory status for the Hilly terrain of West
Bengal.
When GJMM leaders insisted on the Congress accepting their
longstanding demands, Mr Ramesh skirted the emotive issue, saying he
would like the GJMM to remain single-minded on transforming the Hills
developmentally. The Centre is ready to consider any demand related to
the developmental aspirations of the Hill people, he said. However, he
stopped short of throwing his weight behind the party’s clamour for
statehood or Union Territory status.
“I think the focus of the
GJMM should remain exclusively on development of the long-neglected
region through the instrumentality of the Gorkhaland Territorial
Administration (GTA) for at least the next five to 10 years, skirting
their other political demands,” he said.
The UT status for the
Hills is a long-standing demand and the Congress has supported the
demand on several occasions in the past. Hill-based politicians claimed
that the Congress had almost committed itself to the Union Territory
status for the Hills during the Rajiv Gandhi regime. However, the party
later backtracked following opposition to the move from the then Left
Front government under Jyoti Basu.
However, observers feel that
the GJMM hinting at support for the Congress is a tactical move mooted
against the backdrop of the Congress and the Trinamul Congress remaining
at loggerheads.
SNS
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