TAMANG PARRIES QUESTIONS ON POSSIBILITY OF TRINAMUL TIE-UP Binay camp won't back BJP

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Siliguri: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Binay Tamang unequivocally said on Tuesday evening that his party would not ally with the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Tamang told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session organised by the north Bengal zonal council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Siliguri: "Our party has already decided that we will not go into any alliance with the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. As a political party, we will surely participate in the elections." Since 2007, when the Morcha was formed by Bimal Gurung, the hill party has been supporting the BJP in parliamentary polls, in 2009 and 2014. The Morcha's backing enabled the BJP candidates -- Jaswant Singh and S.S. Ahluwalia -- to win Tamang speaks at the interactive session organised by the CII in Siliguri on Tuesday. Picture by Passang Yolmo the elections. A source said it would be difficult for the BJP to retain the seat without the backing of the Morcha.

"It would be a major cause of concern for the BJP as in the hills voter en block had supported the party, which is why its candidates won with huge margins. This time, the Darjeeling parliamentary seat surely appears to be a tough turf for the BJP as it will not have the support of the largest political party in the hills," the source said.

A section of BJP leaders has argued that as the Gurung camp is still supporting the party, the Tamang lobby's decision would not matter.

"However, there is hardly any leader of the Gurung lobby who is out in the open. Unless they come out in pub- lic before the elections, it would be a hard task to revive peoples' support. Not to mention the consistent campaign by the Tamang camp against the BJP," the source said.

Tamang parried questions on whether his lobby would ally with the Trinamul Congress or would field candidates on its own or would support nominees put up by Mamata Banerjee's party.

"All these are yet to be discussed and decided. We will come up with the right decisions at the right time," Tamang said.

At the interactive session with CII members in north Bengal and people from some other trade bodies, Tamang, who is also the chairman of the board of administrators at the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, invited them to invest in the hills.