Morcha march for Gorkhaland

Gurung during the march in Kalimpong on
Friday. Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

Rajeev Ravidas, TT, Kalimpong, Oct. 2: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president, Bimal Gurung, today started a padayatra from Kalimpong with an assurance that he would never betray the trust people had reposed in him on Gorkhaland.

Soon after Gurung had started walking from Motor Stand here along with 300 supporters, over 100 members of the Morcha quit the party, raising cries of a separate Kalimpong district.

In a short speech preceding the procession, the Morcha chief said: "I assure you that I will never betray the trust you have reposed in me. I will work for Gorkhaland resolutely... We are embarking on this padayatra, which will be our last, with the belief that something positive will accrue from it."

The march will end in Darjeeling on October 7.

The 100 people who quit the Morcha were led by Pasang Tamang, an active member of the party since its inception.

Pasang said he had enough of insult and abuse hurled at Kalimpong and its residents by the Darjeeling-based Morcha leadership and he would now work wholeheartedly for achieving a separate district of Kalimpong. Even though 35-year-old Pasang held no post in the party, he was a visible presence in Kalimpong.