A three-month old party has emerged as the face of Hill politics in Darjeeling, as the Hamro Party floated by a well-known restauranteur took the lead to form the board in the Darjeeling municipality.
Though the party president and face of the campaign Ajoy Edwards, the owner of Glenary’s, of the most famous restaurants in the hill town, lost in his own ward, the party won 18 of the 32 wards in the civic board.
The Hamro Party was formed on November 25, 2021 and contested in all the wards of the Darjeeling civic board in its electoral debut.
The emergence of Hamro party has thrown off balance the equation that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had built over the last 10 years, even managing to win over the once powerful Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janamukti Morcha.
Hamro Party supporters waving the party flag in Darjeeling on Wednesday The Telegraph Picture
Since the departure of the once-formidable Subas Ghising from the politicalscape of Darjeeling, the equations in the Hills have changed rapidly over the last 10 years.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee had ended up supporting both the factions of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, one led by Bimal Gurung and the other by Anit Thapa and Benoy Tamang. How the new masters of Darjeeling deal with the Queen of the Bengal plains will decide future of the region’s politics.
Between last May and this February, a lot of water has flown down the usually dry Teesta. Anit Thapa has formed his own party the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, which won nine seats and emerged as the main opposition. The Trinamul on the other hand has won two seats.
“We accept and respect the verdict. We will give full support to the new board. We had only one councillor earlier, this time we have two. Our vote share has also increased to 38 per cent,” said Benoy Tamang.
Glenary’s restaurant File Picture
The Darjeeling Hills has been solidly behind the BJP since 2009 Lok Sabha elections largely due to the support extended by the Gurung-led GJM. Even in 2019, the Trinamul could not make a dent in the Hill areas. Now with a new force emerging, what its stand would be regarding the Gorkha identity issue which had singed the hills in the 1980s is yet to be seen. The BJP which failed to win even a single ward had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019 as well.
“We have won 17 seats and there was tie in one which we won later. We will form the board,” said Robert Chhetri, a leader of the Hamro party. “Edwards could not win because ill-health pushed him out of campaign. He lost by a margin of five-seven votes.
Chhetri said the Hamro party leaders will meet later to decide on the chairman and other members of the board. “We will fulfil the promises that we have made to the people,” he said.
