The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha headed by Bimal Gurung will campaign for the Trinamul Congress in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation polls which will be held on January 22, along with three other civic bodies in Bengal.

Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha, said on Wednesday that the party would support Trinamul and would also appeal to people not to get “duped by the false promises of the BJP”.

“Our party has decided to extend our complete support to the Trinamul candidates contesting from all 47 wards. We will also urge voters, especially the Gorkhas who live here, to vote for Trinamul. It would largely help in expediting the development works initiated and planned by Mamata Banerjee,” said Giri.

He was speaking to newspersons at the Terai branch office of the Morcha at Dagapur, Siliguri. In recent years, this is the first time that a hill party has openly come out in support of a political party in the Siliguri civic polls.

Binay Tamang, who had recently left the Morcha and joined Trinamul, had already said he would campaign in those Siliguri wards where Gorkhas live.

According to Trinamul insiders, there are five to six wards in the city where votes of Gorkhas determine civic poll results.

“If we manage to consolidate their support with the help of hill leaders, it would surely put our party in an advantageous position. Considering the intense contest in Siliguri, every seat matters for any political party,” said a Trinamul leader.

The Morcha general secretary also trained his guns at the BJP. “For over a decade, BJP leaders have been giving empty promises to draw the hill residents’ support. Whether it is the conferment of Scheduled Tribe status on 11 hill communities or a ‘permanent political solution’, the BJP has delivered nothing. Even the promises of setting up a central university and a military training school in the hills have not been fulfilled. There is no point in believing the party and its leaders anymore,” said Giri, whose party had been an ally of the BJP for years.

The Morcha leader said the chief minister had promised to come up with a “permanent political solution” within Bengal.

“The state government has also carried out a series of development works in the hills unlike the BJP that has neither given us separate state nor a Union territory,” said Giri.