BJP not serious about Gorkha interests in Darjeeling: locals

BJP not serious about Gorkha interests in Darjeeling: locals

Kurseong: Realization is slowly dawning across the Darjeeling Hills that the ruling BJP at the centre is in the habit of making promises but doesn’t follow through! In the last election it got the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to support a non hill person of the BJP as the Darjeeling MP. For some strange reason, they did so, perhaps to spite the Trinamool and the CPM. Well, now …

The Binay Tamang group of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has held the BJP responsible for the derailment of the Gorkhaland movement. It has also declared that the BJP can no longer take the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat for granted.

“The BJP is responsible for derailing the Gorkhaland demand. They made tall promises but now they are finding it difficult even to utter the Gorkhaland word. Had they acted in time, our people would not have been martyred,” Anit Thapa, the second-in-command in the Tamang camp, told a public meeting at Kurseong Motor Stand.

The Morcha’s support to S.S. Ahluwalia was instrumental in the BJP candidate’s victory from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.

“Ahluwalia, too, has been unable to do anything for Gorkhaland. From now on, we must elect our own Gorkha candidate from Darjeeling. A Gorkha will at least be able to speak on the Gorkhaland issue in Parliament,” said Thapa. “They (the BJP) mismanaged everything.”