For Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, life has come full circle.

The hill leader has — after brief collaborations with Trinamul once in 2011 and then again in 2020-21 — decided to support the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

“In the interest of the community, their aspiration and with an intention that our issues should be on the right track and also to conserve our language and culture, we have once again decided to support the BJP in the 18th Lok Sabha election for the fourth time,” said Gurung in Darjeeling on Sunday.

Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had supported the BJP and ensured its candidate Jaswant Singh’s win in 2009.

However, in the 2011 Bengal Assembly election, the Morcha had leaned towards Trinamul Congress. In that watershed election, Trinamul had ended the 34-year-old rule of the Left Front in Bengal.

Relations with Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee however were to blow hot blow cold since 2011.

In the 2016 Assembly election and the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Gurung decided to support the BJP.

He decided to back Trinamul for the 2021 Bengal Assembly election.

Gurung had been on the run since the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation and had resurfaced in Calcutta in 2020 to announce support for Trinamul. Gurung had, however, then said that he would support a party that carries the issue of the hills (statehood) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“After analysing all aspects, we have decided to support the BJP,” said Gurung.

The Morcha youth and women's wing had wanted Gurung to contest the election. A forum demanding smaller states in north Bengal, too, had proposed Gurung be their candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.

“However, since four of the seven Assembly segments of Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat fall in the plains, it was decided that Gurung should not contest,” said a party source.

Gurung on Sunday requested workers to assemble at Chowrasta in large numbers at 9.30am on April 3. “Raju Bista (the BJP’s Darjeeling candidate) will file his nomination around 12.30pm that day,” said Gurung.

BJP’s principal rival is expected to be Gopal Lama, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM)-backed Trinamul candidate.

Last Thursday, Lama filed his nomination papers and brought out a massive rally that disrupted traffic in Darjeeling. “We can expect the same on April 3,” said a local resident.

Anit Thapa, president, BGPM, sounded unfazed and said their standing in the hills was strong.