Members of TMC & boards quit

Members of the Gorkha community hold a demonstration for the separate state in Bangalore on Tuesday. (AFP)

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Kalimpong, June 20: Mamata Banerjee's bid to establish the presence of Trinamul across the hills appears to be crumbling with a spate of resignations from community-based development boards and her party in solidarity with the Gorkhaland movement.

Two members each of the Kami Development Board and Khas Development Board, and one member each of the Gurung and minority development boards have tendered their resignations so far. Four known faces of Trinamul in Kalimpong have also quit the party.

Those who have quit are Binay Nepal and Sudip Sharma (Khas board), Narad Mani Ghatani and T.R. Gazmer (Kami board), Navraj Gurung (Gurung board) and Ramesh Basur (minority board).

Apart from three-time Kalimpong MLA Gaulan Lepcha, those resigned from Trinamul include two former chairmen of Kalimpong municipality, C.K. Kumai and Maximus Kalikotey, working president of the party's Kalimpong town committee Dhendup Bhutia and president of the party's Kalimpong block I committee Tshering Sherpa.

Many others have also quit Trinamul and its affiliate organisation. They include 30 families from Lava, five members from Algarah and over 150 members of the Hill Trinamul Motor Driver Workers' Union, who have joined the Morcha-affiliated Chalak Mahasangh.

The Mamata Banerjee government created 15 boards for different communities in the hills, which was described by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha as the "divide and rule" move.

Going by the political mood prevailing in the hills since the start of the fresh round of agitation for Gorkhaland, more members of different development boards and Trinamul are likely to quit in the next few days. Those who resigned from the Khas and Gurung boards indicated that a majority of members of the general bodies would be following suit in the next few days.

"The Gurung board has a general body of 22 members, 12 of whom have decided to resign. I have decided to quit today itself, other 11 colleagues will put in their papers in the next few days. Our decision is guided by what is happening in the hills today. We unequivocally condemn police atrocities on our people and support the movement for Gorkhaland," said Navraj, who is the treasurer of the Gurung board.

Binay Nepal said many of the 30 members of the Khas board's general body would be quitting.

"Many others would have come and quit today, but could not reach here because of the strike. We are resigning to protest the police excesses and in support of Gorkhaland," he said here

An observer said Trinamul appeared to be heading for a complete wipe-out from the hills.

"The resignations so far are only a trickle. It will surely turn into a flood in the days to come. The agitation truly has taken the shape of a people's movement, and everyone is part of it," said an observer.

KalimNews: Reports of protest rallies and demonstrations organised by Gorkhas living and working in different cities of India and abroad have been received. They united without any political banner have demanded judicial enquiry of the Darjeeling firing in which 3 youth were killed. They also demanded formation of a separate state of Gorkhaland for the Indian Gorkhas. Such demonstrations were made in Delhi, Bangalore, Dehradun, Siliguri, different parts of Duars, Gangtok, Guwahati, Shillong, Mizoram, Jadavpur University, Bahrain, Israel etc.