Hill ‘Consensus’ suffers blows.... The decision by the Congress to contest alone in the state was the first blow to the initiative

The Congress candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, Sankar Malakar, in Siliguri on Tuesday. Passang Yolmo

Avijit Sinha, 20 March 2019, Siliguri: An initiative taken by some hill parties and organisations to field a common candidate in the Darjeeling parliamentary seat against the CPM and the BJP has gone for a toss with the CPM and the Congress announcing their own nominees and the GNLF backing the BJP’s contestant.

Even on Monday, some of those parties rooting for the common candidate had held a meeting convened by the National Gorkhaland Committee (NGC), an apolitical organisation. No decision was reached at the meeting on the candidate.

The initiative had brought in parties like the GNLF, ABGL, Jana Andolan Party, CPRM and the Sikkim Darjeeling Ekikaran Manch and could draw support from the Left Front and the Congress.

However, the decision by the Congress to contest alone in the state was the first blow to the initiative.

“It was evident that even if a common candidate is fielded by hill parties, he or she will not get the support of the Congress and the Left Front. But the final blow came when GNLF leaders announced in Delhi that they would support the BJP,” said a political observer.

According to sources, there are indications that some more regional parties might also announce candidates. In fact, the CPRM had already announced the name of R.B. Rai and hinted that in the absence of a common candidate, it would go ahead and field him in the seat.

The developments also made the NGC postpone the meeting scheduled for Wednesday to discuss and decide on the common candidate.

“Latest developments indicate that the GNLF and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Bimal Gurung) faction have agreed to form an alliance and contest the Lok Sabha election together,” said an observer.