Ajoy Edwards and Neeraj Zimba, two senior faces of a newly formed hill Opposition alliance rallying around the BJP ahead of the rural polls, have started a social media war, apparently against each other.

Without naming anyone, Zimba, the secretary-general of the GNLF and the BJP MLA from Darjeeling, referred to a “joker of Darjeeling” and “political vagabond cum faker” in social media posts.

Zimba was replying to a post by Hamro Party president Edwards who had mentioned a “fat man” who is “disliked by many within his party and by the public at large” and “trying to break the unity of alliance.” Edwards also did not name anyone.

The trouble began on Sunday when Edwards started announcing his party’s candidates for the rural polls.

Zimba said Edwards’s “unilateral decision” caused heartburn in the United Gorkha Alliance and he decided to voice the grievance.

“Leaders of other parties were not happy with the unilateral decision. Since I am known to call a spade a spade, I spoke,” Zimba told The Telegraph.

Asked about the choice of words, Zimba said, opting for the pronoun, not the name: “He is not a kid and a lesson had to be taught.”

Edwards, however, told this newspaper that he named candidates in places where it was decided that other allies would not field their party candidates.

Edwards wrote on social media: “A fat man. Now not so powerful in his party, disliked by many within his party and by the public at large, is hellbent on breaking the unity of the people’s alliance at the behest of the opposition. He will fail. Jai Gorkha Ekta!!”.

Zimba tagged Edwards’s post, accusing him of being “hellbent in grabbing powers to repay all his dues & debts he borrowed from the market to recklessly finance his Ego Trip” and for trying to create a dent between GNLF and BJP. Zimba, too, did not name Edwards.

On Tuesday evening, both Edwards and Zimba separately told The Telegraph that this matter had ended.

“The acrimony between the two leaders started when both Edwards and Zimba were vying for the Darjeeling Assembly seat. Zimba got the ticket and later Edwards quit GNLF despite being close to party president Mann Ghisingh. This cold war between the two is set to stay for a while,” said an observer.

Hamro Party, the GNLF, Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the BJP and other BJP’s allies in Darjeeling hills recently floated the alliance to take on Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatrantik Morcha and Trinamul.