With Mamata promise in mind, GJM backs 3rd Front against BJP

Avijit Sinha, TT, 25 January 2019, Siliguri: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has cited Mamata Banerjee’s “assurance” to look into the Gorkhas’ identity issue to seek the community’s support for the proposed “Third Front” in the Lok Sabha polls and urged people to give the BJP a “befitting reply” for its “fake promises”.

The call comes at a time the Bengal chief minister, spearheading efforts to cobble the Opposition alliance, is on a tour of north Bengal and the Darjeeling hills and ahead of a rally Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to address in Siliguri next month.

The Gorkhas are a factor in three parliamentary seats of the region: Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar. The BJP won the Darjeeling seat in 2019 and 2014 with the Morcha’s support. Trinamul holds the Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar seats.

“The GJM welcomes the statement by Mamata Banerjee regarding her assurances about taking up the issue of the identity of the Gorkhas forward…. She will look into the safety and security of the Gorkhas living across India,” Morcha general secretary Anit Thapa said in a release on Thursday.

“With this statement, the time has come to think about promises delivered by Mamata Banerjee and fake promises made by the BJP. The people in the hills, Terai and Dooars must openly support the Third Front alliance in the Centre and remove the party which has given nothing to the Gorkhas other than fake promises,” the release added.

Speaking in Darjeeling on Wednesday on the identity of the Gorkhas, Mamata had stressed the need for “a permanent solution”.

An immediate context for the Morcha appeal is Modi’s upcoming Siliguri rally. The Binay Tamang-led Morcha has stressed that the “time has come to embrace a new government” at the Centre that “understands the identity issue of the Gorkhas”.