On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Darjeeling, there was a heavy downpour of electoral promises from Union home minister Amit Shah but many have complained about the poor track record of the BJP in fulfilling its assurances for Gorkhas.

Shah sounded well versed with the problems of the Darjeeling hills and his speech touched on a range of issues, right from the NRC to civic amenities of Darjeeling town.

“Give your mandate to Narendra Modi, all of Darjeeling’s problems will be solved within five years,” Shah assured the hill people at Gorkha Stadium in Lebong, Darjeeling.

The Bimal Gurung faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which had been with the BJP for 12 years but dumped the party recently to join hands with the Trianmul Congress, has been repeating that the BJP is not interested in solving issues of the hill people. Gurung said that was the primary reason behind him severing ties with the BJP.

The BJP had mentioned two issues in its 2019 Lok Sabha election, “a permanent political solution” and granting tribal status to 11 hill communities.

Shah, who had skipped talking on the core issue of “permanent political solution” at his road show in Kalimpong on Monday, did speak about it at Lebong.

“Our Constitution is vast and there is a solution to all problems,” Shah said, while referring to the “permanent political solution”. The BJP leader also made a commitment to grant tribal status to the 11 communities.

Apart from these two core issues, Shah promised to start “withdrawing (statehood agitation) cases within one week of coming to power.” This promise, many observers believe, is probably an attempt to get Gorkhaland activists on his side.

The Mamata Banerjee government has already started withdrawing cases related to the Gorkhaland movement.

Shah also reiterated that Gorkhas would not be displaced by the NRC. For the past few days, the BJP has been trying to drive home the point that even if the NRC is implemented in the state, Gorkhas will not face any problem.

The assurance has, however, drawn flak from the community, particularly because over one lakh Gorkhas in the neighbouring state of Assam have not made it to the NRC.

“The NRC has not been implemented in Bengal…. Some people are spreading lies. Even if it is implemented, not a single Gorkha needs to be bothered about it,” Shah said.

In the course of his speech, the Union home minister promised land rights to tea garden workers within six months of the BJP coming to power in Bengal, a Rs 600 crore package to solve Darjeeling’s drinking water crisis, upgrade of Darjeeling municipality into a corporation, subsidised loan up to Rs 50 lakh to homestay owners, along with a threeyear tax exemption, a Gorkha TV channel and a central university in north Bengal.

He also promised that the BJP government in the state would turn the cinchona plantation into a medicinal hub, conduct panchayat elections (in the hills) within six months of coming to power, make Darjeeling an educational hub and introduce Buddhist, Queens of Hills and Rajbanshi tourism circuits.

Shah said the BJP government would discard the present Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

The panchayat elections had last been held in the hills in 2000.

On hearing Shah’s speech, a voter in Darjeeling said: “To start with, we would be happy if only two issues, permanent political solution and granting tribal status, are first fulfilled.”

After the meeting in the hills, Shah spoke at another public meeting in Nagrakata of Jalpaiguri and attended a road show in Islampur, North Dinajpur.