The new political dynamics in the hills ahead of the general election has left a section of workers from the two main alliances disgruntled.
The Bimal Gurung camp of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has tied up with the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). On Thursday, around 50 GNLF supporters unhappy with the tie-up joined the Morcha’s Binay Tamang camp.
The Tamang group has aligned with Trinamul. Joint candidate Amar Singh Rai met Trinamul workers at their office in Darjeeling on Friday to smooth ruffled feathers. Though the alliance was expected, the decision has rattled Trinamul workers as the Morcha — before the split in 2017 — was their main rival in the hills.
“The tie-up was unexpected. Morcha leaders and supporters had caused lot of inconvenience to our party supporters and leaders during the (2017) statehood agitation. That is why there is some disgruntlement among supporters. The meeting was called to sort problems that exist here and there,” said Rajen Mukhia, Trinamul’s election in-charge for the Darjeeling sub-division.
Candidate Rai appeared to play down the issue. “In politics, we have seen that there are no permanent enemies and friends.”
On the other side, the Gurung-led Morcha camp was at loggerheads with the GNLF until a few days back.
Ashwin Sangden, a key GNLF leader from Pokhriabong in Darjeeling, said: “The GNLF leadership has done the wrong thing. They (Gurung-led Morcha camp) burnt our supporters’ houses and chased us away but now the leaders have joined hands. We can’t accept this. We are now supporting Binay Tamang.”
Yogen Pradhan, a member of the GNLF Darjeeling branch committee, echoed the view. The leaders criticised the decision by the Gurung-led Morcha faction and the GNLF to support the BJP. “The BJP did nothing for the hills in the past 10 years and there is no way we can vote for it,” said Pradhan.
GNLF president Maan Ghisingh said the party had decided to forget past differences “for the sake of greater interest of the community”. “In this hour of crisis, the community must come before party (affiliations),” said Ghisingh.