Morcha’s Delhi plan

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, May 20: Bimal Gurung has decided to camp in Delhi till the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the prime minister in an effort to strengthen ties with the NDA.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Gurung along with party general secretary Roshan Giri and senior leaders Binay Tamang, Jyoti Kumar Rai and Swaraj Thapa today attended a meeting of the NDA at the central hall in Parliament.

Today, Gurung wrote in his Faceook post: “The GJM delegation will camp in Delhi till the oath taking of Shri Narendra Modi as prime minister on May 26.”

Morcha sources said Gurung wants to ensure that Morcha’s bond with the NDA is cemented. “With the Morcha severing ties with Mamata Banerjee, Gurung is of the opinion that it will need the full backing of the NDA to stand against the state,” a senior Morcha leader said. “The party leadership thinks even though the party had backed BJP’s Jaswant Singh in 2009 and ensured his victory by a record margin, Morcha could not build strong relations with senior BJP leaders. It is looking to change that. That is the reason for Morcha leaders’ stay in Delhi.”

Singh had won by over 2 lakh votes. This time, Ahluwalia won by about 1.9 lakh votes.

Yesterday, Gurung had directed the three Morcha MLAs — Trilok Dewan from Darjeeling, Harka Bahadur Chhetri from Kalimpong and Kurseong’s Rohit Sharma — to sit on the Opposition benches. Since 2011, the MLAs have been sitting on the treasury benches.

Gurung’s post read: “The GJM delegation will also meet prominent NDA leaders in the days to come including Shri Narendra Modi Ji and apprise him about Gorkhaland and the political situation in Darjeeling Hills.”

Giri said: “We were to meet Narendra Modiji today but he had to leave for Gujarat. We will meet other senior leaders in the next few days. We met Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jatley. It was more of a courtesy call.”