Trinamul Congress and Bimal Gurung’s Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have decided not to field candidates against each other in the February 27 Darjeeling municipality elections but leaders of both parties are shying from using the word “alliance” or a “seat sharing arrangement.”

Sources from both the parties confirmed that Trinamul, which announced the names of candidates for 10 wards on Monday, would not field nominees in the remaining 22 wards in Darjeeling civic area. “Bimal Gurung’s party will also not field their candidates in wards where we have fielded our candidates,” said a Trinamul source.

Observers believe that the reluctance by both Trinamul and Morcha leaders to decisively announce a formal alliance probably stems from their inability to gauge people’s reaction to such an understanding.

The political picture is a contrast in the hills compared to 2017, when the last civic elections were held, and now.

In the 2017 Darjeeling civic elections, Gurung’s party had won 31 seats while Trinamul had won one seat. The two parties were bitter rivals.

For 2021 Assembly polls, they forged an alliance. Even though Mamata Banerjee had announced that the party would be leaving the three hill Assembly seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong to “friends” in the hills, the hill Trinamul unit openly supported the Morcha candidates.

The three Morcha candidates came third in all the three seats. The other “friend” of Trinamul in the hills is Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM). Even during the last Bengal Assembly election, Thapa decided to go alone and his party won the Kalimpong Assembly seat while they came second to BJP in Darjeeling and Kurseong Assembly seats.

In the upcoming Darjeeling civic elections, too, the BGPM has decided to go alone. The party has already announced candidates for all the 32 wards and projected the party’s general secretary, Amar Lama, as the party’s face for the post of the civic chairman. Lama was a lone Opposition member in the Darjeeling municipality in the 2004 civic body.

Observers believe that the newly formed party of Ajoy Edwards, Hamro Party, is also expected to perform well in the Darjeeling elections.

Among the 10 candidates Trinamul has fielded for Darjeeling, the party has retained their 2017 winning candidate Chung Chung Bhutia from ward number 31.

Mamata’s party has also provided a ticket to Ganesh Sarki from ward 18, who had won the 2017 civic election on a Morcha ticket.

Former Trinamul GTA Sabha member (nominated) Milan Dukpa has also been fielded from ward 13. Hamro Party and the BJP-GNLF alliance are yet to announce their lists of nominees.

The last date for filing nominations is February 9.