Siliguri, March 9: The CPM today
said the party would moot an “alternative proposal” for the development
of the hills and the plains without dividing Bengal and canvass for its
candidate in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat with the new plan.
Asok Bhattacharya,
a former CPM minister and the convenor of the Darjeeling district Left
Front, said the “proposal” would work out better than the GTA Sabha and
the party would approach all outfits based in the Darjeeling hills for
their support.
“We (CPM) are
going to contest the coming parliament election in Darjeeling with an
alternative proposal, which will be disclosed on March 12 after the
party’s district committee meeting. We will approach all hill-based
political parties, including the (Gorkha Janmukti) Morcha and the GNLF,
with a request for their backing for the proposal,” Bhattacharya told
journalists at Anil Biswas Bhavan, the district office of the CPM in
Siliguri.
Although the
former minister didn’t disclose the exact nature of the proposal, he
said it would ensure the development of Darjeeling district as a whole.
“The proposal is aimed at the development of Darjeeling district by
keeping the hills and plains united with some concrete steps. The
proposal will be better than the existing GTA Sabha for development and
won’t need the division of the state,” said Bhattacharya.
The Left Front has already launched its campaign for CPM candidate for Darjeeling, Saman Pathak.
Bhattacharya said
footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, the Trinamul Congress nominee for
Darjeeling, had agreed to the contest without understanding the politics
of the constituency.
“We have nothing
against him (Bhutia) as we still consider him as an iconic footballer of
the country and personally, I have good relations with him. I want to
say this is a contest of principle. He is contesting without having any
knowledge of the politics of the region. The Darjeeling seat is very
important by its nature as there are so many issues like regional
autonomy, ethnic identity and maintaining unity between the plains and
the hills,” said Bhattacharya.
Observers said the
biggest challenge for the Left would be to ensure that Bhutia was not
targeted personally in the campaign because of his popularity.(TT)