The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership
today held a closed door meeting at the party’s Patleybas office in
Darjeeling apparently to take stock of things after the passing of the
Telangana Bill and the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
In the afternoon, a five-member
delegation led by general secretary Roshan Giri today left for Delhi to
meet UPA and NDA leaders reportedly to pursue the statehood demand.
The meeting at Patleybas continued for
well over five hours, but party leaders refused to speak to the media
saying internal matters were discussed and they could not be disclosed
at the moment.
However, sources said issues such as the
strategies to be adopted in the event of the Telangana Bill getting
through cleanly and the forthcoming general election held centrestage in
the meeting.
“It will not be apt to divulge the
issues discussed at the meeting. But Telangana and the Lok Sabha did
feature along with various development issues,” one of the sources said.
So far, the GJM has not taken a hard
stance after the go ahead given to Telangana unlike in the past.
Instead, party leaders have chose to tread a cautious path, while
maintaining Telangana has opened avenues for a Gorkhaland state.
GJM chief Bimal Gurung had earlier
pointed out that the state government’s consent was not needed for
creating a new state as was proved by Telangana. The Andhra Pradesh
government had opposed the bill, but the central government got it
passed, which rejuvenated the GJM as the party was widely perceived to
have lost a footing.
Meanwhile, the GJM’s rivals have upped
the ante for a separate state even as the general election is just
around the corner. They are also accusing the Morcha of callousness and
settling for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, which they
contend is but a temporary arrangement and against the wishes of the
people.
The GJM has in the meantime cancelled
its March 2 public meeting in Sukna announced right after the passage of
the Telangana Bill, citing the ongoing Madhyamik examination.(EOIC)