Hills leaders hint at ouster of Bimal Gurung, Roshan Giri from GJM

TNN | Nov 20, 2017, DARJEELING: Emboldened by the footfall at their public meeting in Darjeeling town on Sunday despite GJM president Bimal Gurung's appeal to people to stay away from the rally, rebel leader Anit Thapa chose to take the battle to Gurung camp by hinting at a major reshuffle of the party leadership that could see the removal of Gurung as the party president. A GJM central committee meeting has been called by GJM chief coordinator Binay Tamang on Monday at Ghoom, 8 km from Darjeeling town.

In the fag end of his speech, Thapa dropped the hint without taking names. "We (the other person being Binay Tamang) were expelled from the party. But now let us see who will be expelled," he said. Asked about this remark, Thapa later said, "We will discuss the issue and take a decision at tomorrow's central committee meeting." Significantly, most of GJM's prominent leaders that included GTA sabhasads Satish Pokhrel, Jyoti Kumar Rai and Ramesh Lama, Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai, central committee leaders Alokekant Mani Thulung, Dinesh Gurung, Tshering Dahal, Diwakar Gurung and Taranga Pandit among others attended Sunday's public meeting at the Motor Stand area.

"I will not lie to people. We accepted the GTA which we know is an arrangement within the Bengal government because it was the need of the hour. Otherwise, our party would have vanished. We have not let the TMC flags fly in the Hills. We may have differences with the TMC, but it is also true that we have to keep in touch with the state government to bring development to the Hills," he said.

Expressing satisfaction with the huge turnout at the public meeting, Tamang said Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri had lost political relevance in the Hills.

"His (Gurung) leadership is now limited to sending audio messages from the jungle. People were asked not to attend today's public meeting and call it a black day. However, a huge number of people turned up. This shows that Gurung and Giri have become irrelevant in the Hills," Tamang said.

The leader said he would request the Centre to call a tripartite meeting, keeping in mind the public mandate for the GJM leadership. "We have heard that the state government has written to Delhi to organize a tripartite talk. But we want the Centre to call us for the talks as we now have the people's mandate," Tamang said.

He also said he would head a six-member delegation for the November 21bipartite talks with the state. The meeting will take place at Pintail village near Siliguri. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to arrive in Siliguri on Monday for the talks.

GTA vice-chairman Anit Thapa, Kurseong and Darjeeling MLAs Rohit Sharma and Amar Singh Rai, Board of Administrators member Sanchavir Subba and GJM central committee member Tshering Dahal will be part of the delegation.