Movers and shakers of Darjeeling politics are back in action with earthmovers as elections are round the corner.

On Saturday, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung oversaw the work in which an earthmover was pressed into action to dig the earth and create a kutcha road at Lower Tokling near Mirik’s Soureni. Lower Tokling is around 45km from Darjeeling.

“The residents of this place wanted a (kutcha) road. However, we hadn’t been able to manage a JCB for the past few days. We have finally managed to engage a JCB and we should finish the work in a little over a week,” said Gurung.

JCB is the name of the company that makes earthmovers.

“We will create more such roads in the neighbouring villages, too,” said Gurung.

Hamro Party (HP) president Ajoy Edwards had started the “politics of JBC” in 2021 when he had laid playgrounds and roads across the hills.

The move prompted rivals, including Gurung, Anit Thapa of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) and even Binay Tamang, who was not affiliated to any party in 2021, to start using earthmovers not just to build playgrounds and roads but also to clear roads hit by landslides during monsoons.

But after the polls to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in 2022, the movement of earthmovers was pretty slow.

With panchayat elections expected to be held in the hills after a gap of 23 years, heightened political activities are being witnessed in rural areas.

Edwards’s party completed the construction of a playground and a road at Mondal Goan in Sukhiapokhri, 23km from Darjeeling, on Saturday.

The BGPM, which is heading the GTA, is in the driver’s seat.

The GTA is executing drinking water and road projects and building community halls in a big way. On Saturday, the GTA laid the foundation stones for Lower Ging Sirubari and Kafabari community halls, along with a subhealth centre at Lower Ging.

The HP has bought two earthmovers and hired a third one. An earthmover costs around Rs 35 lakh. Some charge Rs 1.2 lakh per month for an earthmover.