Most Darjeeling councillors back Tamang... GSSS in Darjeeling

The Morcha councillors of Darjeeling municipality attend the meeting convened by Tamang on Sunday

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Oct. 8: A majority of the Gorkha Jamukti Morcha councillors of Darjeeling today promised support to Binay Tamang, a couple of days after a similar boost to the disgruntled leader in Kurseong.

On Friday, 16 of the 17 councillors of the Morcha at Kurseong municipality had extended support to Tamang and his loyalist Anit Thapa. Of the four municipalities in the hills, three are under the control of the Morcha, while the Trinamul Congress is at the helm in Mirik.

The Morcha has 31 councillors in Darjeeling and 22 of them expressed their loyalty to the Tamang-Thapa lobby today. Trinamul has one councillor in Darjeeling.

"Nineteen councillors were present at a meeting called by the Tamang camp in Darjeeling today and all of them extended support to him. Three councillors - Nira Sharma (ward 1), Sonam Sherpa (ward 7) and Sumati Sherpa (ward 22) - have conveyed their support over the phone," said Tilak Chhetri, a Morcha leader with the Tamang camp.

Of the 31 Morcha councillors, chairman D.K. Pradhan and Ambika Sharma were arrested in connection with the violence during the statehood movement and are currently in police and judicial custodies, respectively.

Mingyur Yolmo, the councillor of ward 3, said: "We will start attending office after a few days and the administration of each departments will be assigned to a councillor. There was a Morcha meeting today where the majority of the councillors were present."

The hill municipalities have been shut for over 100 days because of the agitation.

Prativa Rai, the councillor of ward 26 in Darjeeling, said: "We believe statehood can be achieved only under the leadership of Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa and through democratic means. That is why we promised support to them."

With most of the Morcha councillors in Darjeeling and Kurseong vowing support to the rebel camp, Bimal Gurung has been sidelined further in the party. Forced to go into hiding because of multiple cases slapped on him by the Mamata Banerjee government, the Morcha president is increasingly finding it difficult to retain his influence on the hill people.

Yesterday, Gurung's pictures were removed from Morcha flags by Tamang supporters in Kalimpong, prompting the party chief to say his "heart bleeds".

Sources said the Morcha councillors of Kalimpong municipality would start attending work from tomorrow even though they were yet to spell out their stand with regard to the Gurung-Tamang divide in the party.

Today, members of the Gorkhaland Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti (GSSS), an apolitical organisation that has been organising programmes in Delhi for the past four months in favour of statehood, held an indoor meeting at the Gorkha Dukha Niwarak Sammelan Hall here.

Hundreds of supporters were present at the meeting.

"We wanted to take out a march from Batasia to Chowrastha today but were denied permission. We are an apolitical organisation and will continue to carry out our Delhi-centric agitation," said Kiran B.K, the chief of the GSSS.

Batasia and Chowrastha, the famous promenade in Darjeeling, are 6km apart.

Sagan Moktan, the working president of the GSSS, said: "On November 24, we will organise a march to Parliament from Jantar Mantar to demand the tabling of the Gorkhaland bill. We are looking at getting lakhs of supporters for the march."
(Source & Courtesy: https://www.telegraphindia.com/1171009/jsp/bengal/story_176934.jsp)