Dooars Morcha in rural board bind

TT, Aug. 9: Leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the Dooars are in a double bind over the outfit’s participation in forming panchayat boards.

They are worried that if the Morcha forms boards or extends support to other parties, it will go against the spirit of the hill outfit’s ongoing movement for Gorkhaland.

On the other hand, if the Morcha refrains from forming boards wherever it can, the outfit will be accused of ignoring the interests of the Dooars people.

Added to the Dooars leaders’ predicament is the lack of clear instructions from the central leadership with regard to the outfit’s role in the post-poll situation.

The Morcha had contested the rural elections in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the combine could win the majority of seats in 10 panchayats. The alliance also won 28 panchayat samiti seats and two zilla parishad seats.

“As the central committee of the Morcha had decided to resume the agitation for the separate state all of a sudden, we are in a dilemma now. We have no clear instruction from the leadership whether we should form the boards or extend support to other parties to rule the local bodies or our elected members shouldn’t even take oath at all,” said a Dooars Morcha leader, who didn’t want to be named.

“If we play a role in the formation of the boards, it can be construed as a contradictory move. When the Morcha is hell-bent on carving Gorkhaland out of Bengal, how can we become part of the panchayat system in a state from which we want to separate? If the Morcha doesn’t involve in the formation of the rural bodies, the organisation will be accused of ditching the people of the Dooars who had been promised development during the campaign,” the leader added.

The Morcha-JMM alliance could bag 10 of the 24 seats in the Madarihat panchayat samiti and has already been approached by the Trinamul Congress that has three members for a post-poll tie-up to form the board.

“A final decision on Trinamul’s invitation will be taken on August 12. We have clearly asked our elected candidates not to approach any other political party to form the boards,” said Gobind Pradhan, the president of the Madarihat unit of Morcha.

Jyoti Kumar Rai, a central committee member of the Morcha, said in Darjeeling that he would visit the Dooars tomorrow and take stock of the situation. “I will collect the feedback and report to the leadership which will take a final decision.”