Darjeeling hills were an oasis of peace compared to the rest of Bengal during the panchayat polls on Saturday.

There were only two complaints of attack on Saturday in the hills. In the Teesta valley, GTA-elected Sabhasad Dhendup Pakhrin was accused of threatening residents. Prem Sherpa, a resident, said that he was also beaten up by Dhendup’s son and driver.

In another incident, Raju Bista, the Darjeeling BJP MP, alleged that cadres of the rival BGPM vandalised the vehicle of Emanuel Lepcha, the BJP candidate from Bhalukhop gram panchayat in Kalimpong. Bista said Lepcha’s minor daughter was assaulted, causing her injuries and trauma.

Overall, there was much enthusiasm to vote in the Darjeeling hills where rural polls were being held after 22 years.

At the time this story was filed around 5pm, there were many polling booths where long voter queues were reported.

“This is an election to develop our village and hence people have come out to vote in large numbers,” said Dinesh Subba, a voter from Bijanbari.

P.D. Bhutia, a doctor who practises in Siliguri, said while he did not go to his native place to vote during the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) elections last year, he voted this time around.

“I cast my vote at the Sherpa Goan Primary School in Lava, Kalimpong, as I felt this (panchayat polls) is an important election. I did not vote for the GTA polls as I did not think it was important then,” said Bhutia whose father Nak Singh Bhutia was also a gram panchayat member of the area once.

The hills had recorded one of the lowest voting percentages, 56.5 per cent, during the GTA polls as many refused to participate in a process to revive the GTA. The Darjeeling voter turnout for 2021 Assembly polls was 71.88 per cent in comparison.

The political environment in Darjeeling, which has seen violent agitations, was not always as peaceful.

Laxman Pradhan, a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), on Saturday recounted turbulence in the hills during the 1980s and 1990s, including bombings and gunshots.

“During those days we lived in constant fear but never changed our party,” said Pradhan recounting the days after the Gorkhaland agitation started in 1986.

Opposition parties would find it difficult to field candidates, the ABGL leader recalled.

Gurung on alliance

Bimal Gurung, the president of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, said the United Gorkha Alliance formed with the BJP would end once voting ended on Saturday.

“The Alliance was only for this election,” said Gurung.