Modi to skip hills for rally on Feb 8

AVIJIT SINHA & BIRESWAR BANERJEE, TT, 29 Jan 2019, Siliguri: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally on February 8 either in Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar or Alipurduar, Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia said on Monday, the choice of venue indicating a BJP strategy to skip the hills where the party would have to prove support among the Gorkhas.

"The Prime Minister's meeting will be held at a place in any one of these districts. In Darjeeling district, there is an elected representative of the party (Ahluwalia himself) and thus he will come here later after commencement of the process of Lok Sabha elections," Ahluwalia, a Union minister, said at an event in Siliguri.

The assertion comes at a time when there is speculation in political circles on whether the BJP will be able to prove that it still has support in hills.

Political observers opined that if the party had chosen a venue that is in Siliguri sub-division or in adjoining areas of Jalpaiguri district, it would have to ensure a gathering of Gorkha voters to drive home the point that the hill residents are still with BJP.

"It would also have been a test for leaders of the Bimal Gurung lobby who still claim to be an NDA ally. It is clear that BJP has made a strategic move to avoid the test," said an observer.

According to him, even if the party manages to mobilise crowds like the one last week's public meeting of Amit Shah in Malda, absence of Gorkhas in the audience would make it evident that the Binay Tamang lobby of the Morcha and Trinamul has managed to swing peoples' support in hills at them.

"On the other hand, if the meeting is held at a place that is far from Siliguri and Darjeeling, BJP leaders can always claim that they did not bring supporters from hills and foothills due to the distance and that the meeting was meant for supporters and voters of the three neighbouring districts and not Darjeeling where the party has a seat," the observer added.

Recently, Morcha leaders Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa have unequivocally asserted that that they have pulled out of NDA and will not support BJP at the ensuing Parliament elections.

Ahluwalia, when told about the remarks, said: "We had not allied with them but with Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri. Recently, Roshan Giri has made it clear that their party is still with NDA.".