Gorkha Janmukti Morcha makes a fresh bid for Dooars

TNN | Jul 31, 2013, JALPAIGURI: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders, on Tuesday, decided to go all out in Dooars for the inclusion of the region in the proposed Gorkhaland state. The party has already relaunched their movement in the Hills and is now aiming to bring the movement down to the plains. 

The party leadership, overwhelmed with their result in the panchayat elections in Jalpaiguri's Dooars, is not ready to waste any time in encashing the Nepali sentiment. 

"The result indicates that the Nepali populace in the Dooars is still keeping faith on us. When we are taking forward the movement for a separate Gorkhaland state, we cannot keep the Dooars out of it," said Roshan Giri, secretary of GJM. 

The GJM, who had tied up with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (John Barla faction) in the panchayat polls, has won in more than 120 gram panchayat seats. In 23 panchayat samiti seats, their candidates have emerged victorious. Even, they have won two zilla parishad seats - one in Metialli and the other in Madarihat-Birpara. 

"This is a huge achievement for our party. Many GJM supporters had left the party to join Trinamool and Congress ahead of the polls. But that did not have any impact on our party and the result proves that. Now, we are waiting for our leaders to re-raise the demand of inclusion of Dooars in Gorkhaland," said Madhukar Thapa, a GJM central committee member from the Dooars. 

Following the GJM's stance to relaunch its movement in the Dooars, observers are afraid that the region might witness another round of violence. "The Adivasis and Bengalis will definitely oppose the movement which might result in violence across the region," an expert said. CPM, which won the Jalpaiguri zilla parishad, has held Trinamool Congress responsible for inviting fresh trouble to the district. 

"They had tied up in several places with the GJM candidates. The result is before the eyes. Now that the Hills party has won, it is obvious they will revive their demand of inclusion of Dooars and Terai in Gorkhaland," said Krishna Bandapadhyay, secretary of Jalpaiguri CPM.