House resignation? Harka to lean on 'instinct' - Morcha MLA keeps up suspense till the last hour on quitting Assembly post

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Sept. 17: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, who had said yesterday that he would quit the party and the Assembly, today changed the script to say that his resignation from the House would depend on his "instinct" tomorrow.

He, however, repeated that he would quit the Morcha, which holds sway in the Darjeeling hills - Chhetri is the MLA of Kalimpong. "I am leaving for Calcutta now. However, I will go by my instinct on the issue of resigning from the Assembly. Only tomorrow will I decide what I will do," he said while leaving for Calcutta, where the other two Morcha MLAs are expected to resign on September 18.

The MLA spoke yesterday after a meeting with Mamata on Tuesday night, which has raised questions on whether he plans to join Trinamul. Chhetri did not give a clear answer on that.

Observers said that if Chhetri joins Trinamul - Mamata's party has said nothing on the matter - the Kalimpong MLA would find his acceptability among hill people plummet as Trinamul is against the statehood demand. "It is still to be tested whether the hill people will discard the statehood issue in lieu of development boards," said a political observer.

Many in the Morcha also believe that if Chhetri leaves the Morcha and remains unattached, it would lose an articulate leader. "Harka knows his politics and he managed to create his identity even when he had not joined any political party during Subash Ghisingh's reign through his writing and comments on political issues," said the observer.

Yesterday, Chhetri had said he was unhappy with the unilateral way of functioning of Bimal Gurung. As an example, he had cited that the decision to quit the House was never discussed with the three MLAs. The Morcha asked its three MLAs to quit to protest against the state government's alleged interference in the working of the GTA and non-transfer of departments to the hill body.

Chhetri today said: "Whatever decision I take tomorrow will be independent of any pressure and will only be taken keeping in mind the interest of Kalimpong."

When told that the Morcha claims the MLAs were being asked to resign as also part of the renewed statehood agitation, Chhetri said that for him, "the interest of Kalimpong comes first. All other issues come second."

He had yesterday said he had discussed with Mamata the demand to make Kalimpong subdivision a district. Chhetri added today that he had been pursuing the issue for a "for long as it is in the interest of the people of Kalimpong. I have raised the issue in the Assembly three times. In fact, after the meeting, Aroop Biswas, (the state housing minister), asked me to submit a file detailing the dates on which I have raised the issue in the Assembly."

The MLA today iterated that he would leave the Morcha. "At times one has to take hard decisions. I have made up my mind on this regard. How can one stay when one has no use in the party," he said.

The Morcha has refused to speak on the matter.

Chettri said no senior Morcha leader had contacted him. "Some party people did meet me today. They were very guarded in their conversation," he said. "Later, I got a feeling that they had come to meet me on the instructions of some party leaders, but no senior leader has contacted me."

Roshan Giri, the Morcha general secretary, did not take calls on his cellphone nor has there been an official word from the Morcha camp on Chhetri's threat. Asked if he would join any other party, the Kalimpong MLA said: "People can always gossip but in the end there are only gossips."

Shared from The Telegraph by KalimNews in Kalimpong News at http://kalimpongonlinenews.blogspot.in/2015/09/house-resignation-harka-to-lean-on.html and http://kalimpongnews.net/2015/09/18/house-resignation-harka-lean-instinct-morcha-mla-suspense-hour-quitting-assembly-post/