Binay Tamang, who met chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, reached Darjeeling on Friday to say the “mission has been accomplished”, but stopped short of explaining what he meant.

“The mission has been accomplished. This (statement) explains a lot,” said Tamang in Darjeeling, adding that details would be made public after talks at the party’s central committee meeting.

The politics of consolidation between the Tamang and Bimal Gurung rival factions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha are on full swing ever since Gurung, surfacing after three years last month, announced his decision to snap ties with the BJP-led NDA and support Trinamul. Now, both rival factions are Trinamul allies but have publicly refused to share any platform with each other.

Instead, these two factions have started mobilising their own supporters.

Hundreds of Binay Tamang supporters on Friday reached the Bagdogra airport near Siliguri, to receive Binay and his deputy Anit Thapa, who returned after spending three days in Calcutta. The Tamang camp also mobilised supporters who waited for the convoy along the route to Darjeeling, shouting slogans in support of Tamang and Thapa.

A Gurung camp leader said they were not bothered by this show of strength.

“Our units have been activated across the hills. Even after three years of lying low we don’t have to work hard to set up new units as they are being activated automatically,” the Gurung supporter said.

The Bimal camp leaders maintained that political equations would immediately change once Gurung returns to the hills.

Tamang had been a trusted leader of Gurung till 2017. But in the aftermath of the violent agitation of 2017 in the hills over the demand of a separate Gorkhaland, Gurung had to leave the hills with a slew of cases against him, and Tamang allied with Trinamul.

Tilak Chand Roka, a lawyer and leader of Gurung camp said that they are expecting their leader in the hills any time after “a fortnight”.

“There is a legal process to be completed and we have already started work on this. We guess it should be completed within a fortnight,” said Roka.

The lawyer explained two processes to be completed. “We are looking at the administration to withdraw cases against us. However, there can be cases filed by individuals which cannot be withdrawn by the administration. For cases filed by individuals, we have to look at bail,” said Roka.

The memorandum of agreement of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, which was signed by the Centre, state and Morcha, in 2011 had also agreed to withdraw all cases, except murder, registered by the state government during the Gorkhaland agitation phase between 2007 and 2011.

Clause 29 of the MoA signed on July 18, 2011, reads: “A review will be done by the State Government of all the cases registered under various laws against persons involved in GJM agitation. Steps will be taken in the light of the review, not to proceed with prosecution in all cases except those charged with murder. Release of persons in custody will follow the withdrawal of cases.”

However, these cases have not been withdrawn till date.

Additional reporting by Bireswar Banerjee in Siliguri