Meeting helps Mamata keep Gurung isolated - Morcha divide deepens

Mamata with state government officials at Uttarkanya on Tuesday. Pic: Passang Yolmo

Avijit SInha, TT, Siliguri, Sept. 12: Mamata Banerjee may have failed to bring normality back to the hills till now, but her primary objective of isolating Bimal Gurung and causing a rift in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha seems to have succeeded.

Binay Tamang, who attended the meeting with the chief minister at Uttarkanya - the north Bengal branch secretariat - here today and led the Morcha delegation, said he was in favour of withdrawing the strike and would appeal to the people of the hills to lift the shutdown.

However, Morcha president Gurung said he was in favour of continuing the strike, unless tripartite talks started on Gorkhaland. Gurung was quick in his reaction and spoke to the media over the phone.

"Contradictory statements from two lobbies in the Morcha have created an opportunity for the chief minister and her government to make hill people realise that there is confusion within the party that called the strike and that the movement is leading nowhere," said a retired bureaucrat.

"Now, we have to see whether her main objective of ending the strike is fulfilled," he added.

Observers said Gurung was further alienated from a large section of Morcha members and hill people as he vowed to carry on with the strike that entered Day 90 today and caused them innumerable inconveniences.

Following the resumption of the agitation for the separate state, the government has managed to drive a wedge between Tamang and Gurung. The state has mostly disregarded messages and communications made by Gurung and his lobby and has sent a clear message that they won't be recognised.

This became more obvious ahead of today's talks. Even though the Gurung lobby announced names of its delegates for the meeting, they did not get invitation.

"Two Morcha MLAs attended the meeting today in their official capacity and the government said they wouldn't be recognised as the representatives of the Morcha," said a source.

Tamang, however, was swift to claim that a "seven-member delegation" of the Morcha, including the two MLAs, had attended the meeting.

"The move by the state would only add to the frustration of Gurung who is desperately seeking a window to get out of the current situation. The state's plan has reaffirmed that it will not give any importance to Gurung and his lobby so far as negotiations are concerned and will continue to talk only with Tamang as the Morcha's representative," an observer said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY OUR CALCUTTA