Trinamool president and chief minister
Mamata Banerjee announcing the name of Harka Bahadur Chhetri as the
party’s candidate from the Kalimpong assembly constituency has set the
political circles in the hills abuzz, giving the ruling Gorkha Janmukti
Morcha a shot in the arm ahead of next month’s Assembly polls. Today,
Banerjee announced in Kolkata that Chhetri would contest from Kalimpong
on a TMC ticket, while former Gorkha National Liberation Front leader
and MLA Shanta Chhetri has been nominated from Kurseong. Meanwhile,
Sharda Subba, the hill Mahila TMC president, will be contesting from
Darjeeling constituency.
North Bengal, which has six Assembly
constituencies, will go to the polls on April 21, in the third phase.
The six assembly constituencies are Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Kurseong,
Matigara-Naxalbari (SC), Siliguri and Phansidewa (ST). The Kalimpong
MLA, who severed ties with the GJM in September of last year, had said
he would contest the election when he floated his Jan Andolan Party
recently.
The GJM has always maintained that
Chhetri, who is very close to the state government, has formed the JAP
to extend support to the TMC, which is trying to make inroads into hill
politics. “Our stand that the JAP is the ‘B’ team of the TMC stands
vindicated, today. This also proves that Chhetri, who has refused to
take a stand on the statehood demand, is siding with a party that is
opposed to the Gorkhaland demand,” alleged GJM assistant secretary Binay
Tamang during a press conference held after the announcement was
telecast this afternoon in news channels.
Chhetri could not be reached for his
reaction, but JAP leaders said the TMC chief has committed a mistake by
announcing Chhetri’s name as a party candidate from Kalimpong. “There
has been a genuine mistake on the TMC’s side. How can a political party
announce the name of the president of another party as its candidate?”
argued Amar Lama, senior bureau member of JAP.
The chief minister’s announcement
could dent the Kalimpong MLA’s prospects in the Assembly election, as
any party in the hills that opposes the statehood demand stands to lose
votes because the issue is etched in the people’s sentiments.
“The TMC is basically seen as a party
that is opposed to the statehood demand even though it has made some
inroads in the hills with its ‘development board’ policy. Now that the
TMC has announced Chhetri as one of its candidates, the development
could backfire on the MLA as the GJM will go the extra mile to project
him as someone who is against the Gorkhaland demand,” a political
observer pointed out.
The observer also said that Chhetri
stood to gain after the state cabinet recently announced Kalimpong as a
separate district, a cause that the former GJM leader has utilised to
the hilt to form the JAP in the run up to the assembly election.
“Chhetri is the MLA from Kalimpong and he stood to gain in terms of
garnering votes as people would see him as the one who had taken up the
cause fruitfully.
However, the equation can now change drastically,” he said.
Meanwhile, the GJM is high in spirits
and has started chalking out strategies for the election. It has started
forming constituency and booth level election committees besides
appointing six party observers. “Our only objective is to outdo our own
previous election record. We are strong in the grassroots and the people
are with us,” asserted Sawan Rai, the GJM Darjeeling sub-divisional
vice-president. (EOIC)
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