GNLF president Mann Ghisingh on Friday said Union home minister Amit Shah had “implored” him to support the BJP in the three hill Assembly segments, following which the GNLF “emptied our pockets” and decided to support the saffron party.

When the BJP had announced the candidates for the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong seats four days ago, Ghisingh had first opposed all the nominees but soon changed his stance.

The BJP fielded Subha Pradhan and B.P. Bajgain in Kalimpong and Kurseong, respectively. Neeraj Zimba is the BJP candidate in Darjeeling. Zimba, a GNLF leader, had won the Darjeeling seat on a BJP ticket in a bypoll in 2019.

A section of GNLF leaders, however, wants Zimba to be replaced with Ajoy Edwards.

Aware of the dissent, Ghisingh addressed his supporters in Darjeeling on Friday in the presence of senior leaders, including Edwards, to justify his support to all the three BJP candidates in the hills.

“Binti garyo (Amit Shah implored me). I had not seen a home minister imploring so much,” said Ghisingh who added that he had seen an opportunity in the plea.

The opportunity, Ghisingh said, was to tell Shah that he must showcase a clear framework of the “permanent political solution” that the BJP had promised to the hill people in the 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto. Neither the BJP nor its hill partners have explained what the “permanent political solution (PPS)” means.

“We have emptied our pockets as one last chance (to the BJP),” said Ghisingh.

The GNLF leader said the party had “winning candidates like Edwards and others in Kurseong and Kalimpong” but had decided to extend support to the BJP as they could not afford to “disconnect” themselves from Delhi.

“This decision has been taken keeping in mind the interest of our community and our issue (PPS),” said Ghisingh.

“Be united, do not look at the face of the candidate but the issue we are working at,” added Ghisingh.

The GNLF leader’s mention of the candidates’ face seems to be another attempt to smoothen ruffled feathers among Edwards supporters. Edwards, despite being present at the meeting, has not made public his mind on whether he would contest from the Darjeeling seat or not.

“Edwards is under tremendous pressure from his supporters. It would still be too early to say water has been cleared. His supporters are expected to hold another meeting on Saturday,” said a source.

Many believe if Edwards ultimately decides to plunge into the fray after the GNLF’s Friday decision, it could change the political contours in the hills.