Sukna, March 30: Bimal Gurung today appealed to Subash Ghisingh, his mentor-turned-rival, to support the BJP candidate for the Darjeeling seat.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief
also made a similar overture to Independent candidate Mahendra P. Lama,
who is being supported by two other hill parties — the ABGL and the
CPRM.
This is the first
time Gurung has appealed to Ghisingh to join hands. “I would invite
Subash Ghisingh to join in the struggle to achieve Gorkhaland and
support the BJP candidate in the Darjeeling seat,” he said.
Referring to
Ghisingh, who led a statehood movement in the hills in the 1980s but
settled for autonomy later, Gurung said: “It was you who started the
movement for Gorkhaland in the eighties before me in which 1,200 people
died and 1,500 houses were torched. You must remember that these
contributions were not made to vote for Trinamul or CPM.”
Ghisingh, whom the
Morcha drove out of the hills in 2008, is now back in his house in
Darjeeling. The GNLF, Ghisingh’s party, cannot name any candidate now as
the date for doing so has passed. He has also not clarified if he would
support any other party.
The contest for
the Darjeeling seat is turning out to be a five-cornered one. The
Morcha, JMM and the Kamtapur People’s Party have all agreed to support
the BJP.
Trinamul has got
the support of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad. The Left and
the Congress have not formed any alliance yet, while Lama is being
supported by the ABGL and the CPRM.
Gurung’s unity call today at Sukna, the gateway to the hills, could be to check any split in the Gorkha vote, a source said.
Today’s public meeting was the first that the Morcha and the BJP held together. Darjeeling votes on April 17.
The Morcha
president said after the meeting: “As he (Ghisingh) had raised the
demand for Gorkhaland, we should work together now to reach our goal.”
S.S. Ahluwalia,
the BJP candidate from Darjeeling, and most of the central committee
leaders of the Morcha were present today with Gurung, who in a message
to Mahendra P. Lama, said: “Let’s come together and form a sweet and
strong house which cannot be affected by landslides or storms. If you
need a post in the government, I would, once the BJP government is
formed at the Centre, ensure it. But please don’t stand apart. Join us
to intensify our struggle for statehood.”
Ahluwalia, the
Darjeeling candidate, said: “When the Gorkhas lay their lives to protect
the country, it is fine. But when they demand separate statehood within
the purview of the Indian Constitution, they are termed outsiders.”
He said: “The BJP
is committed to forming smaller states. Once (Narendra) Modi’s
government is formed at the Centre, the dream of Gorkhas will be
fulfilled.”
Gurung said chief minister Mamata Banerjee “by using the police and administration as a façade”, resorted to “dictatorship”.
“When over 1,000
party workers and 15 GTA Sabha members were arrested, their families
approached me and urged that I speak to Mamatadidi for their release. I
could not let them down and went and talked to her.”
He said she
“resorted to pressure tactics by putting a rider that all three MLAs of
our party should support Trinamul in the Rajya Sabha elections. I
instructed our MLAs to vote for Trinamul. It was only after our
assurance that the workers and leaders were released.”
- The Telegraph