Star campaigners make beeline to Darjeeling

EOI, Darjeeling, With the countdown to the Lok Sabha polls getting closer, star campaigners for candidates of various political parties in the fray have begun rushing up to the hills for a last ditch effort to woo the electorate.

While CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury today used his oratory skills to seek votes for Saman Pathak, the sultry the afternoon saw Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, in a highly Hindi accented overtone, urging for support to Sujay Ghatak.

After their respective rallies, the ‘star campaigners’, as expected, convened meetings at the Sumeroo Manch where they did not forget to miss out ‘mentioning’ the separate state issue that has led to violent rounds of agitation and destabilised the hills for decades at a stretch.

Yechury took clichéd digs at the Congress and BJP while championing the Sixth Schedule for the hills insisting this would guarantee overall development ahead of the time when the separate state question becomes the core issue.

"The Congress is corrupt and is bent on destroying the country by protecting the capitalists. The communal BJP is a danger that needs to be rooted out to ensure a secular country. For a safe and corruption free nation, we must elect for a change on the basis of policy and not leaders and to achieve this we must stop the NaMo-RaGa (Narendra Modi-Rahul Gandhi) music," quipped the politburo member.

The CPM leader also questioned Modi’s personal ambition in terms of his marriage and prime ministerial aspiration. "I wish Modi the best for his marriage. But I wonder why he had to hide it for so many years. If a person is capable of hiding his wife's identity, how will he be able to run the country as its prime minister," Yechury sought to know.

Raking up the "bhumiputra" issue, the politburo member appealed to people to vote for Pathak. "He (Pathak) is the son of the soil. Over the years as a Rajya Sabha MP, he has worked to resolve problems of this region as a Rajya Sabha member in Parliament. I come here often, but this time I have especially come to ask you to vote for our candidate," said Yechury, before stepping down from the dais at Chowk Bazaar along with senior party leaders, both from the hills and Siliguri.

Meantime, not to be out-done, the PCC president castigated the three BJP-CPM-TMC grouping in his 30-minute speech. "The BJP is not really sincere about the hills’ demand. UP there, the BJP talks about separate state while it is totally against it in the plains. The demand for Gorkhaland was placed by Jaswant Singh in Parliament but once; that too in the finance session," pointed out Chowdhury.

He was critical about the TMC's claim of "poriborton" in Bengal and in particular in the Darjeeling hills. "The chief minister had a good relation with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha but look at what has happened now. She was once the union railway minister, but what has she done for the world heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Under the TMC, the state is getting heaped up in corruption. What can the TMC give to the hills if it cannot do anything for Bengal?" asked the PCC president, adding the state has the highest unemployment rate as per latest data available.

On the CPM, the Congress leader said, "There was rampant corruption in the DGHC, but the CPM never did anything to check it and gave a free hand to the Gorkha National Liberation Front as doing so suited Left interests.”

The Congress leader, like his CPM peer, chose not to dwell on the Gorkhaland demand while asserting his party had and would always extend support to develop the hills. "The aim of our party is to take the country forward on the road of development. Our Gorkha brothers should get employment opportunities and the region’s tourism sector developed. We have never shied away from releasing funds and will continue to do so," asserted Chowdhury.

Chief Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to arrive in Darjeeling later in the evening today. She will campaign for former footballer Bhaichung Bhutia, the party's candidate, on Sunday from Chowrastha.