Darjeeling voted for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Sabha after 10 years on Sunday but voter enthusiasm was relatively low with a turnout of 56.5 per cent.
Last year when the Darjeeling hills had voted for the Bengal Assembly election the turnout in the hills was much higher at 71.88 per cent.
Many residents this newspaper spoke to talked about the lack of interest in the GTA polls.
“I do not think that the GTA elections will help us achieve our demand of a separate statehood,” said a 50-year old resident of town who did not want to be identified.
The BJP, Gorkha National Liberation Front and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) were against the GTA polls and even though these parties did not issue a boycott call, senior leaders of these parties including Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri of GJM and Mann Ghisingh, president, GNLF, did not cast their votes.
Some others came up with different explanations.
“I did not feel like voting. My mother is 94-year old and it is difficult to take her to vote. My husband has gone to attend a wedding in Kurseong along with my son,” said a 57 old lady, who had voted both in the Bengal Assembly elections and in the recently held Darjeeling civic elections.
During the Darjeeling municipality election in February the voting percentage was 53.79 percent.
Cadres of different parties in the hills, however, said that voting in Darjeeling town on Sunday was lower than in the civic election.
“In my booth, the voting percentage was 47 during the civic elections but this GTA polls it was only 42 per cent,” said a Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) cadre who was assigned with a booth in Darjeeling.
The lower percentage during the Darjeeling municipality was attributed to winter.
The winter factor was not in play this time around. On Sunday, there was a mild drizzle but “nothing extraordinary to keep people indoors”, said a resident.
However, Ajoy Edwards, the chief of the Hamro Party, which won the recent Darjeeling municipality elections, and Anit Thapa, the chief of the BGPM, did cast their votes and both sounded confident of a win.
The GTA Sabha has 45 seats. The majority mark is 23.
“We are confident of doing well in this election, too,” said Edwards.
Thapa, who is contesting from two constituencies in Kurseong said that they were no strong rivals for their party in this election.
“Other parties were confused with regard to the GTA and hence people will not vote for them. We are confident of a win and there has been no strong rival to us in this election,” said Thapa.
Even though Bimal Gurung’s party was opposed to the election, sources said that the party did send specific instructions to its cadres on which candidates to support.
In the 2012 GTA elections, Bimal Gurung’s party had won the election even before a single vote was cast.
The party won 28 of the 45 seats uncontested.
Moreover in the remaining 17 seats where Trinamul had fielded candidates, party chief Mamata Banerjee had issued a statement that they were politically withdrawing from the race. Even though elections were held in the 17 seats, Trinamul did not put in any effort to win the elections.
A proper contest was held only in one seat in Kalimpong where a rebel Morcha leader Sanchabir Subba contested against the official candidate Kalyan Dewan.Subba lost the election by 677 votes.
B.P. Bajgain, BJP Kurseong MLA on Sunday said that the voting percentage suggests that half of the hill voters were not interested in the GTA.
“Since, the GTA elections were not conducted by the election commission and voting percentage was also low, those winning the GTA election will not have the mandate to take up our community issue at the national level,” said Bajgain.
GTA elections are held by the home and hill affairs department.
The BJP MLA’s statement is significant as some in the hills believe those at the helm of the GTA must be invited by the Centre for the tripartite talks on issues concerning Darjeeling.
In the last tripartite elections, only leaders of BJP and its allies were invited for talks.