Gurung SMC surprise - Morcha bid to contest

TT, RAJEEV RAVIDAS, Kalimpong, March 22:Bimal Gurung today said the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha would like to field three to four candidates in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation elections who could contest under the BJP symbol, raising doubts on the national party's candidate list that was announced yesterday.

"We will select three or four candidates for the SMC polls. They will contest under the BJP flag," the Morcha chief said at a party meeting in Darjeeling.

The BJP, however, has made it clear there was no question of negotiations on fielding the Morcha's candidates as the names had been decided.

Rathindra Bose, the Siliguri (organisational) district secretary of the BJP, said: "We have announced all 47 candidates for the SMC elections. There is no question of changing any candidate now as only three days are left for the filing of nominations."

Told about what Gurung had said in Darjeeling, Bose said: "Our leader and party MP S.S. Ahluwalia has been apprised of all decisions and announcements at regular intervals. He maintains contact with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders. The Morcha leaders may speak of certain wards and seats but as of now, there is no question of changing any candidate."

A Morcha source said the party wanted to put candidates in wards 2 and 46, where the BJP has already announced candidates.

The Morcha source said the two wards - Champasari falls in ward 2 and Gurung busty in ward 46 - has sizeable presence of hill people. He could not explain why Gurung mentioned "three or four seats".

The BJP yesterday came out with the candidate list for 45 of the 47 wards. It had not announced the candidates for wards 40 and 41, which it did today.

The BJP's candidate for ward 2 is Tapashi Chowdhury, and the party's face for ward 46 is Harendra Yadav.

The Morcha source said: "The picture should be clearer by tomorrow. Even though the BJP has named its candidates for wards 2 and 46, we are talking to them in an effort to convince them to field candidates selected by us in the two seats, which are our strongholds."

Bose did not mention anything about "talks" going on for seats.

At the party meeting in Malidhara, about 5km from Darjeeling, 468 Trinamul Congress and GNLF supporters joined the party.

Gurung said the party's recent nine-day dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for Gorkhaland was successful and the movement was on the right track.

"This is the time for all of us to come together as one, especially since the movement was going on the right track. If the movement for Gorkhaland were not to be successful because of lack of unity among us, I shouldn't be held responsible," he said.