Binay-Bimal spat on NDA exit

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT,  22 Jan 2019, Darjeeling: A day after Binay Tamang announced that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was severing its decade-old association with the BJP-led NDA, rival Roshan Giri questioned his "authority" to speak on behalf of the party.

Tamang responded to Giri on social media and said the majority of the central committee leaders had removed him and former chief Bimal Gurung from their posts in 2017.

Earlier, Giri had posted a message on social media: "I want to remind those who have been questioning me about Mr. Binay Tamang claiming GJM support to Third Front. Mr Binay Tamang was removed by our Party's Central Committee on September 1, 2017." Giri asserted that "we continue to have full faith" in the BJP and expressed hope the demand for granting tribal status to 11 hill communities would be fulfilled in Parliament's budget session.

In his response, Tamang posted: "It would be advisable for Roshan Giri to read the party's constitution first. How many central committee members are with them? In the presence of how many central committee members were we removed?" A Tamang aide said two thirds of the central committee members had removed Gurung and Giri on November 21, 2017, after which Tamang and Anit Thapa were appointed president and general secretary of the Morcha.