Morcha sees BJP divide

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Darjeeling, June 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said it understood the compulsions of Bengal-centric BJP leaders and added it was "confident" that the central leadership understood the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.

Yesterday, Bengal BJP minder Kailash Vijayvargiya had said in Delhi that the party was not in favour of a separate state.

Asked about the comments, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri told The Telegraph over phone from the capital: "Bengal-centric BJP leaders have their compulsions. The top leadership (of the BJP) is aware of the issue. Some within the BJP might talk about autonomy but we will only speak about Gorkhaland. We are an ally of the BJP since 2007 and the reason we supported them was the Gorkhaland issue."

The BJP manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections had said the party would "sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long-pending demands of the Gorkhas, the adivasis and other people of the Darjeeling district and the Dooars region".

The Morcha leadership maintained that comments such as those made by Vijayvargiya were nothing new. "Even in the past, a national secretary of the BJP, Rahul Sinha, had come to Darjeeling, held a public meeting at Chowk Bazar and said the same thing. Even Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh had recently said the same thing," Giri said.