The Trinamul hill leadership’s decision to support Bimal Gurung in the three hill Assembly seats this time has provoked some Trinamul old-timers into blaming the new leadership of acting in their “self-interest”.

Some “founders” of Trinamul in the hills said they could not forget atrocities allegedly perpetrated by Gurung’s party when in power in the hills. Their main grouse was Gurung’s alleged excesses against them between 2012 and 2017.

Chewang Bhutia, president of the party’s Kalimpong block 2, said: “Without consultation, three-four leaders took the decision (to back Gurung) for their personal gain. We will not agree to it.”

“We were attacked, our families displaced, we had to flee to Siliguri and other places during the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation,” alleged Bhutia.

For this Assembly election, Mamata Banerjee left the three hill seats of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong to Trinamul’s “friends in the hills”. Both Morcha factions, one headed by the Gurung and the other by Binay Tamang, are allies of Trinamul but are contesting against each other.

On Saturday, Shanta Chhetri and L.B. Rai, Trinamul district presidents of Kalimpong and Darjeeling, announced backing Gurung. Their reasons were Tamang’s decision not to campaign with Trinamul leaders in the hills, Gurung’s sincerity to support Trinamul in the plains, need to sustain the party in the hills and feedback from Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC team.

Binny Sharma, a party “founder” in the hills and past district general secretary, said he took up the matter with the party leadership in Calcutta.

“The matter has reached our leader Mamata Banerjee’s ears. I was given to understand that there was no such directive from her,” said Sharma.

Chhetri on Saturday told this paper the party was working under I-PAC’s direction.

“Through The Telegraph we came to know they are claiming the decision was influenced by the I-PAC team. I called the top command in I-PAC and they, too, said the decision had not come through them,” Sharma said in a news meet at Kalimpong on Sunday.

Sharma and Bhutia said they would “adhere to any decision of Mamata Banerjee.” “But this decision has not come from her...,” said Sharma.

Trinamul started spreading its wings in the hills from 2012 after which the region saw two phases of statehood agitations in 2013 and 2017. During the 2017 agitation, Trinamul was virtually wiped out from the hills but started mushrooming after the Tamang faction of the Morcha tied up with Trinamul.