Ghisingh likely to hold meet to clear party stance on Lok Sabha elections

SNS, Siliguri, 17 March, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief Subash Ghisingh is all set to go to his home in Darjeeling Hills, tentatively after 20 March, and clear the air on his party’s stance on the Lok Sabha elections. The GNLF stance will come just before the candidates file their nominations.

According to a senior GNLF leader, Mr Ghisingh will hold a meeting of the party’s central committee at his residence and take a call on whether the party should contest the elections or support other parties.

The GNLF supremo has, however, decided that his party may extend support to any party for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat on the basis of that party’s ‘serious willingness’ to support the concept of the Sixth Schedule status for the Darjeeling Hills as per the Indian Constitution.

Mr Ghisingh had been demanding that the erstwhile Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) should be brought under the Sixth Schedule, as, according to him, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha leadership agreed to set up the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) without a constitutional guarantee.

Notably, the Sixth Schedule agreement was signed between the Centre, the state and the GNLF on 6 December 2005. But the matter was dropped in the Parliament.

The senior GNLF leader also said that his party chief has received proposals from various political parties, including the Trinamul Congress, the BJP and the CPI-M, all of them seeking GNLF support for the polls.

“But Mr Ghisingh is yet to finally decide on the matter,” the leader said today.

Sources said the CPI-M has started campaigning for its party candidate Saman Pathak and published a 21-point proposal for the development of Darjeeling Hills, including powerful autonomous council for Darjeeling under the Sixth Schedule. The proposal has been sent to Mr Ghishing, a senior GNLF leader said.

“We are not concerned about the GNLF’s decision and its political intentions,” Mr Pathak, meanwhile, said today. “But we are fighting for the Darjeeling LS seat by highlighting permanent solution of the Hills tangle,” he added.