Trinamool to hold its first ever rally in Hills tomorrow...Quit GTA: TMC to GJMM.....GJM members join TMC

Rajen Mukhia

THT, Kolkata, 4 October 2013: The Trinamool Congress’s Darjeeling hills unit has decided to challenge the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) by organising the party’s first-ever political programme in Kurseong on Sunday.

Rajen Mukhia, the Trinamool’s hills convenor and Binni Sharma, the party’s spokesperson for the area on Friday said that the first-ever political meeting of the party would be addressed by Mukul Roy, the all-India general secretary of Trinamool and North Bengal development minister Goutam Deb.

The hill leaders also claimed that hundreds of GJM supporters along with the workers of the Gorkha National Liberation Front and Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists would join the Trinamool that day.

Many casual employees of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), who are affiliated to the GJM, would also join the party on Sunday, they claimed.

With the Trinamool planning to welcome the disgruntled elements in the GJM into the party fold, its rally assumes significance, especially since the relations between the state government and the GJM has worsened in the recent past.

So far, the Trinamool had restricted its activities to the foothills of Darjeeling and had unsuccessfully tried to woo hill residents by distributing free ration at a few points here.

Sharma said, “The Trinamool would go to the hill people with development issues and would expose how the GJM has been hoodwinking them in the name of Gorkhaland.”

Sharma also said that rather than running the GTA properly, the GJM is siphoning off GTA funds to support the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP), a lathi-wielding force formed by the party.

Mukhia said, “The hill people are fed up with the GJM’s brand of politics and the state government is trying its best to carry forward developmental activities.”

The Trinamool leaders also said that the party would request the state government not to deduct the salary of gover nment employees in the hills for the indefinite bandh period. They also justified the deployment of central forces in the hills.

TMC factions clash

The supporters of two Trinamool factions fought pitched battles at Matigara on Thursday. Bombs were hurled and bullets fired. Two persons were injured and have been admitted to a hospital. Sources said that the fight was over the extortion of money.

Quit GTA: TMC to GJMM SNS, 4 October: Hitting out at the GJMM, seemingly bogged in the Gorkhaland/GTA dichotomous trap, the Trinamul Congress Hill unit dared the party to quit the GTA. 
“The state government would step in the interests of development once the GJMM decides to withdraw from the body,” said the convenor of the ruling party’s Hill unit, Mr Rajen Mukhia in Siliguri today. 
“If they are not interested, they should quit the GTA without wasting time. They are free to remain sequestered in their luxurious cocoons. But they would have to put the ghost of Gorkhaland off their heads.This is a pipe dream, given the formidable constraints standing against it. The state government would take appropriate steps, as per the GTA Act, to run the body to usher in development of the people of the Hills,” he added. 
He, however, evaded question on the proposed tripartite meeting slated on 23 October.
The TMC hill unit spokesperson, Mr Binni Sharma, said the state government had not opposed the bail plea of the newly elected GTA chief executive, Mr Binay Tamang now lodged in Jalpaiguri gaol. 

GJM members join TMC
EOIC, Jalpaiguri: As many as 650 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha members, including leaders, today reportedly joined the Hill Trinamool Congress. They include GJM Gorubathan town committee vice president Arjun Baraily, Raj Moktan and Kumai committee secretary Bal Kumar Pariyar. Sources said 400 Morcha supporters from Gorubathan bazaar area joined the TMC and 250 from the Kumai area under Jaldhaka police station.