A three-member delegation of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) left for Delhi on Monday to meet Union home minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders.

Sources in the hill party said the purpose of the visit was to discuss the permanent political solution of the hills, an issue time and again flagged by hill parties.

The delegation of party president Mann Ghising, general secretary Mahendra Chhetri and Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Zimba who had won on a BJP ticket at the 2019 bypolls, left for Delhi after a call from the Union home ministry.

“We received a call from the Union home ministry on Monday and were told that a meeting would be held in Delhi. It seems that the Union home minister will be present but are yet to know other details like the agenda and venue,” said Chhetri.

“We would, however, hold talks only on the issue of permanent political solution and not any other issue,” he added.

The delegation’s trip to Delhi follows Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung’s decision to sever ties with the BJP and support Trinamul. Gurung was an ally of the BJP since 2009.

In last year’s Lok Sabha polls, GNLF joined hands with the BJP and also fielded Zimba as a BJP candidate in the Darjeeling Assembly bypoll. However, for the past few months, GNLF leaders have spoken against the BJP and its Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and questioned the Centre’s silence to address key demands of the hills.

A political observer said Gurung parting ways with the BJP had been a setback for the saffron camp in the hills and it urgency to continue its ties with the GNLF was greater. So far, the BJP won hill polls piggybacking on hill parties.