The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), the BJP’s largest ally in the hills right now, on Saturday said that unless the BJP took concrete steps for a permanent political solution for the hills before the 2021 Bengal polls, the GNLF would strike on their own.

Ajoy Edwards, president of the GNLF Darjeeling branch committee, said the GNLF could not stand with the BJP “before the people” based only “on promises.”

“The BJP government must fulfil the promises before the 2021 election….They must come clear on a permanent political solution and must also take concrete steps. Else, our party will be forced to chart our own way,” said Edwards.

His statement came in the wake of the Bimal Gurung faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s decision to leave the BJP-led NDA alliance and support Trinamul in the election.

Edwards said the BJP government had “not convened a single meeting on the “permanent political solution”.

The GNLF’s statement is bound to put pressure on the BJP, a hill politics analyst said.

Before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP promised a permanent political solution for the region and tribal status to 11 Gorkha communities. The BJP was then supported by the Gurung faction, the GNLF and others, which ensured Raju Bista’s win from Darjeeling.

The GNLF criticised the Morcha’s Gurung and Tamang factions, saying that the “silent majority” would not vote for those who betrayed the Gorkhaland demand, alluding to the camps choosing to back Trinamul.

In a separate development, on Saturday, a bulk of GTA pay-band employees from Kalimpong joined the TMC in the presence of Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri.