Darjeeling, March 20: The BJP
candidate for Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, S.S Ahluwalia, today called on
CPRM president R.B. Rai and appealed for the hill party’s support in the
election for “the cause for which the people of Darjeeling have been
fighting”.
The CPRM which attracts a large
number of people to its public meetings has said a decision on the
support for Ahluwalia will be taken next week.
Ahluwalia, whose
candidature is backed by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, was closeted with a
few CPRM leaders in the party office here for 45 minutes. The spokesman
for the CPRM, Govind Chhetri, wished the BJP candidate “best of luck”
for the elections, dropping broad hints that the hill outfit was likely
to support Ahluwalia.
The BJP leader was
accompanied by Morcha leaders, Binay Tamang, Raju Pradhan and Ram Jung
Golay, to the CPRM office. Ahluwalia first spoke to Rai, a former Rajya
Sabha member, before holding talks with other CPRM leaders.
Rai welcomed
Ahluwalia and both the leaders told the media that they were “old
friends”. “We are old friends. He (Ahluwalia) had helped us a lot when
we were demanding the inclusion of Nepali language in the Eight Schedule
of the constitution (in 1992),” said Rai. After exchanging
pleasantries, Ahluwalia sat with CPRM’s central committee members like
Govind Chhetri, Narbu Lama and Shekhar Chhetri. Rai was not present in
the meeting and even the three Morcha leaders stayed off.
After the meeting,
Ahluwalia said he had requested the CPRM to support his candidature. “I
came to meet my old friend, R.B. Rai, and have also met the party’s
central committee members. I am confident they will take a decision that
won’t divide the votes which are cast for the cause, for which the
people of Darjeeling have been fighting for long.”
Asked if the CPRM
had put forth any conditions for the support, Ahluwalia said: “We are
looking at working with trust and interest in each other. When there is
trust, there are no conditions.”
Govind Chhetri
admitted that there would be no conditions when the two parties had
“interest in each other”. He, however, said the CPRM wanted the
inclusion of “a separate state of Gorkhaland comprising the hills, Terai
and Dooars” in the election manifesto of the BJP.
“The central
committee and the election committee of the CPRM will meet soon to
finalise its decision on Ahluwalia’s request for our support. We will
most probably announce our decision on March 23,” said Govind.
Ahluwalia assured
the CPRM that he would act as “a bridge” between the people and the
government to ensure that the “expectations and aspirations of the
people are fulfiled”. Morcha assistant secretary Tamang said his party
had already held a meeting with the central election committee of the
CPRM two days back to seek support for Ahluwalia. Even though the CPRM
and the Morcha are not in the best of terms, the two parties had come
together in the past for the agitation for Gorkhaland.(The Telegraph)