Darjeeling, April 12: Suk Bahadur
Subba, a former Trinamul Congress leader from Kalimpong, joined the
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today with around 50 of his supporters.
The Morcha said
Trinamul supporters in the hills had started joining the Morcha after
realising that the primarily political demand of the hill people, which
is the creation of Gorkhaland, would remain unfilled by Trinamul.
Morcha general
secretary Roshan Giri said: “Suk Bahadur Subba, a Trinamul Congress
candidate in the GTA elections from Algara-Dalapchand, today joined the
Morcha along with 50 of his supporters after realising that the Morcha
is the only party sincere towards the demand for the creation of a
state.”
The 49-year-old
Subba, a small-time farmer from Algara in Kalimpong, was previously with
the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), which is at the moment
politically inactive.
Today, Morcha president Bimal Gurung handed over the party flag to Subba and his supporters in Darjeeling.
Subba said he had
joined the Morcha because the cause of the Gorkha people was paramount
to him and he believed the Morcha, and not Trinamul, would remain true
to the community.
“I had joined the
Trinamul about a year back in the hope it would take up the cause of our
people, but that has not happened. I told Bimal daju in Darjeeling I am
in politics only to espouse the cause of our people. Otherwise, I am
happy being a poor farmer,” he said.
Subba had filed
nomination against Morcha candidate Kalpana Tamang in the GTA polls held
on July 29, 2012. However, Mamata Banerjee instructed Subba and 16
other Trinamul candidates to “politically withdraw” from the elections
as Trinamul shared a healthy relation with the Morcha then.
The new entrant to the Morcha also said he was made to feel unwanted in Trinamul by the party’s hills convener Rajen Mukhia.
“Maybe, it was
because of our different background. Mukhia used to be with the GNLF,
while I was with the UGRF. He probably didn’t feel comfortable with me.”
Giri said many
Morcha supporters who had left the party for Trinamul had slowly started
returning to the party. “Just a few days ago, 13 Morcha supporters who
had joined Trinamul returned to our party after holding a meeting with
our area’s (Mungpoo) GTA Sabha member, Ratan Thapa,” said Giri.
It’s not clear if any of the 50 people who had left Trinamul and joined the Morcha today had been with Gurung’s outfit before.
A few days back,
Trinamul had even produced a letter allegedly written by a Morcha unit
seeking an explanation from those who had left the hill party and joined
Trinamul.
The Telegraph
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