Morcha in north

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, April 30: Bimal Gurung and other senior Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders will leave for Haridwar and Dehradun tomorrow to campaign for BJP candidates.

The delegation includes central committee members of the party Binay Tamang, Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Raju Pradhan and Diwarkar Gurung, apart from the Morcha president.

“We will be campaigning mostly in Dehradun and Haridwar where a sizeable number of Gorkhas live. The delegation will return on May 8,” said Binay Tamang, the assistant secretary of the Morcha.

The Morcha today held a “review meeting” of the party to take stock of the organisational strength and the expected performance by the party in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Gurung today sounded confident of winning the Darjeeling seat “comfortably”.

“We will win the seat comfortably. However, soon after the results are announced the state government might announce dates for two-tier panchayat system. We will, however, not accept two-tier elections and we will even go to court for implementation of the three-tier rural polls as this has been agreed in the memorandum of agreement,” Gurung said.

The state government has not said anything yet about two-tier rural elections in the hills.

Gurung also told his party leaders that the organisation has to be further strengthened in the hills. “During the Lok Sabha elections, some of the party leaders were overburdened. Proper co-ordination must be there in all organistations,” he said.

In the just concluded Lok Sabha election, the Morcha supported BJP candidate S.S. Ahluwalia in Darjeeling.