Bimal is sending feelers' to CM

SNS, SILIGURI, 5 JANUARY 2018: Absconding Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) chief, who has remained uncommunicative of late, has now started sending 'feelers' to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and if sources are to be believed, he is doing this through no one other than his once loyal lieutenant and now a rebel leader, Binoy Tamang, whom the CM has made the chairman of the Board of Administrators (BOA) of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

Ahead of Miss Banerjee's visit to Siliguri where she is scheduled to hold a review meeting on the Hill affairs at Uttarkanya on 9 January, a section of Trinamul Congress leaders in the Hills have started keeping a close watch on Mr Gurung's supporters.

"The idea is to see if Gurung and his supporters are up to anything that will create any law-and-order problems in the Hills," Trinamul sources said.

The sources said that officials associated with the state government's intelligence branch have been keeping an eye on Mr Gurung and watching his movement.

They further said that intelligence officials have alerted their sources and asked them to collect any message released from Mr Gurung's undisclosed locations ahead of the chief minister's visit to Siliguri to inaugurate the Uttar Banga Utsav 2018 on 8th January.

'Though he was scheduled to appear in public in Delhi, all programmes have been deferred as people have started rejecting him. As per source information, Bimal Curung, who has been almost demoralized after Binoy Tamang virtually taught him a good lesson, is presently in Namchi area in Sikkim,- a senior Trinamul activist in the Hills claimed. "Gurung has now started sending feelers to chief minister Mamata Banerjee through Binoy Tamang," he claimed. He, however, did not elaborate.

In fact, there is no one to release political statements on behalf of the GJMM's Gurung faction in the Hills under the present circumstances.

Asked to comment on the chief minister's meeting on the Hill Affairs, GJMM leader Roshan Giri remained tight lipped today, despite several requests,.

Following the end of the 104-day shutdown during the Gorkhaland agitation in the Hills, Mr Gurung, who is on the run after police slapped several violence-related cases on him, sent frequent audio and video clips and press statements to the media. However, the audio/video clips have stopped coming in, while he sent two written statements on Christmas and New Year.

In his last message he sent on New Year, the once undisputed leader of the hills wished that the "protracted problems of the Gorkha people" ended soon.