The Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat was keenly contested on Friday. Under the heat of the competition, leaders faltered, which turned out to be a source of entertainment for the discerning voter.
Neeraj Zimba, who is the secretary general of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) but the Darjeeling MLA of the BJP, posted a video where he is seen carrying Raju Bista, the BJP candidate of Darjeeling, on his back.
Zimba, who seems to be a firm believer in the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity — in the past, he had posted a video of him eating live bees and scooping them out of a beehive with his bare hands — for a politician, once again provided much entertainment for the voters on Friday.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Saturday, Zimba an astute politician, provided an insight into his move.
“Well, Raju Bista had posted a video from Siliguri with a message, 'how is the josh'. In response to his message, I, too posted a video to reflect the josh in the hills,” said Zimba. “I was carrying Gorkhaland (read BJP)... you can interpret in your own terms.”
The video, according to Zimba, was not of the voting day but was “six-month-old”.
“I had carried him (Bista) from Matterhorn (Bista’s residence-cum-office in Darjeeling) uphill (near the Mall Road) as he had sprained his ankle then,” said Zimba.
Russi Mody, former chairman of Tisco, used to spend his holidays in Matterhorn — a three-storied building with a panoramic view of Mount Kanchenjungha — in the past. The place has been rented out to the BJP since 2014 when S.S. Ahluwalia won from Darjeeling. The 2009 BJP winner, Jaswant Singh, would usually stay in two of the best properties in Darjeeling — Windamere or Elgin.
The video of Zimba “carrying Bista” was keenly followed in the hills. “He is carrying Bista to ensure an Assembly ticket for himself in 2026,” said a Zimba critic.
On Friday, the entertainment quotient was also provided by Gopal Lama, Zimba’s rival and the Darjeeling candidate of the Trinamool Congress.
“It was to be on number one, but since there was an old lady there, it was on number two,” Lama, a retired administrator but a novice in politics, was heard saying in a video
In the EVM, Lama’s name was the first on a list of 14 candidates. The second name was Munish Tamang of the Congress and the third was Raju Bista.
Lama’s statement went viral. Many supporters of the Congress, mockingly, thanked Lama for the number two.
Lama clarified. “I had said I would be the first to vote. When I went to vote, despite being the first, I made space for an elderly woman. So, all I wanted to say was that I was number two in casting my vote.
He wittingly added with a pun: “The people who made my video viral seem to be my friends, as they, too, knew what I meant in that statement.”
Also, some creative minds in Darjeeling seem to have beaten the model code of conduct.
Many graffiti of the Congress were defaced for lack of proper permission. Some seem to have beat the defacement by just dipping their hands in paints and splashing on the defaced walls.
“These walls just have hand impressions but nothing to suggest it is a Congress symbol. This was a creative art,” quipped a resident, who is a BJP supporter.
