Trinamul will support the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s Binay Tamang group in the 2021 Assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee declared on Friday and suggested she was not interested in “interfering” in the politics of the hills.
Campaigning in Darjeeling and Kurseong on Thursday and Friday, the chief minister made it clear she wanted the support of the Morcha faction to ensure Narendra Modi was voted out as Prime Minister.
“I have not came to the hills seeking votes for Trinamul in the past seven years. Yes, I did come here once for Bhaichung Bhutia (TMC candidate from Darjeeling in 2014),” the chief minister said in Kurseong on Friday.
In Darjeeling on Thursday, Mamata had announced that Trinamul would back the Tamang group in the Assembly elections. “I wanted your support as this is an election for Delhi. During the Assembly elections, we will support the Morcha.”
Mamata also coined the “from Darjeeling to Delhi” slogan to connect with hill voters.
Defending her decision to field Amar Singh Rai as the Trinamul candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, Mamata said: “Even then, the candidate is yours (Morcha), that, too, a bhoomiputra (son of the soil). Only the symbol is ours.”
Mamata then suggested that the choice of Rai, a former hill MLA, had not been easy. “Did I not face questions (about the candidate) from Siliguri, Matigara, Phasidewa, Chopra,” Mamata asked, referring to areas in the plains and trying to emphasise the importance she had given to the hills.
Mamata is known to visit the hills at least once in three to four months. “I want the hill party (Morcha) to do well but have relations with us so that we can help them. The relations with Morcha (Binay) are very good,” Mamata said.
The statement was seen as an indirect message that such ties could not be forged with Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri, who lead the other Morcha faction. Gurung spearheaded the violent Gorkhaland agitation in 2017 that forced him to go into hiding.