Ghisingh no-vote raises doubts that ties with TMC may have soured

SNS, Darjeeling, 17 April 2014: Former Darjeeling strongman and chief of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Subash Ghisingh, who has been supporting the Trinamul Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, has left his supporters and others alike guessing as he failed to show up to cast his ballot. The move from the 78-year-old leader has fuelled speculations here that his relation with Trinamul supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee has strained.

Journalists in Darjeeling waited the whole day until the final minutes of polling at the booth where Mr Ghisingh, 78, was expected to cast his vote. The distance between the leader's house on Zakir Hussain Road and the polling station at the Ramakrishna mission BT College on Gandhi Road is about half a kilometre.

Asked about the surprising move, Mohan Ghisingh, the GNLF leader’s son, who reached the polling booth in the afternoon, said, "I don't know if my dad will cast his vote."

A close associate of Mr Ghisingh, on condition of anonymity, said, "We don't know what message the chief wants to send across by not casting his ballot."

GNLF central committee member and convener of the party’s Terai-Daoars unit, Tshering Dahal, said she was not aware if Mr Ghisingh voted.

Trinamul candidate in Darjeeling Bhaichung Bhutia, however, refused to comment on the matter.

Mr Ghisingh had said he would support the Trinamul on the condition that the former autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) be restored by dissolving the present Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a move that he said would pave way for the inclusion of the Hills in the Sixth Schedule. Leaders here said Mr Ghisingh did not cast his vote in resentment against Miss Banerjee’s “indifference” to his demands, as the CM, in her recent campaigning in the Hills, did not utter a single word on the demand made by the GNLF.

General secretary of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) Roshan Giri said, "Subash Ghisingh knows that TMC will not win this election and that is why he did not cast his vote. But by not doing so, he has betrayed his own supporters."

On the other hand, GJMM chief Bimal Gurung was confident of a win for BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia his party has supported, as he cast his vote today.

"We are hundred percent sure that the BJP-GJMM will sweep this election in he Darjeeling constituency with a 1.5 lakh margin," Mr Gurung said.