Morcha, Trinamul lose flock to each other

Youths who returned to the Morcha with Bimal Gurung in Darjeeling on Friday. Picture - Suman Tamang

Rajeev Ravidas, TT, Kalimpong, Jan. 3: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Trinamul Congress today inducted supporters from either side to their respective folds in the name of development, a day after Bimal Gurung had taken charge as the chief executive of the GTA Sabha.

The Morcha could woo about 50 youths from areas in and around Darjeeling, barely months after they had left the party and joined Trinamul. About 100 Morcha supporters in the Kalimpong subdivision switched over to Trinamul at a public meeting in Pedong.

Welcoming those who rejoined the Morcha at the party office in Singamari, Gurung appealed to all those who had quit his outfit to return and jointly work for the development of the hills. “The GTA and the state government will jointly work for the development of the hills. There are unemployed youths who are being lured by others with promise of jobs. People must realise, like these boys have, that in the remaining three-and-a-half years of our term, the GTA will carry out development work and create job opportunities in the hills,” he said.

The 50-odd youths are from Singla tea estate, Alubari and Singamari in and around Darjeeling.

Dawa Lepcha, a youth from Singla tea estate, said he and his friends had returned to the Morcha because they were disappointed with the Trinamul government.

“We had joined Trinamul a month back after its leaders had promised us employment, but not a single person from amongst us has got a job. Trinamul does not have any policy that would benefit unemployed youths like us,” he said.

In Pedong, Chewang Bhutia, the Trinamul’s youth co-ordinator in the hills, said it was the state government which would fund the development work in the hills to realise chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s promise to turn the region into Switzerland.

“Without Trinamul, nothing can be achieved in the hills. It is the Trinamul government in the state which will remove the problems of unemployment in the hills,” he said.

Bhutia said about 100 Morcha supporters from Pedong, Algarah and East Main Road locality of Kalimpong town joined Trinamul.