Hill TMC all set to welcome Mamata

EOI, Kurseong, 15 July 2014: Hill Trinamool Congress supporters have started hoisting party flags at various vantages places in Kurseong town ahead of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Darjeeling Wednesday.

Banerjee is visiting Darjeeling tomorrow on a two-day official tour. The visit is being considered an important one as it is her first after the Lok Sabha polls. Moreover, relations with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha are at an all-time low. It is also worthy of note that despite announcing several development programmes and community boards for the hill populace, the TMC was not successful in garnering enough votes to wrest the Darjeeling parliamentary seat.

Amid such a backdrop, observers feel it will be very interesting to see how the chief minister will be received by the hills. It is a known fact that the GJM, the hill TMC and the Lepcha and Tamang communities including others used to accord her a grand welcome whenever she climbed uphill to Darjeeling. This instance though, it appears only the hill TMC will take the onus of receiving their leader and have thus hoisted party flags in various places apparently to assure her she is still popular among the people here.

Support for the TMC has altogether not fizzled in the hills out as could be seen by the warm welcome accorded today to Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Committee (INTTUC) state president Dola Sen by party supporters and activists at the Kurseong Tourist Lodge while she was on her way to Darjeeling.