Morcha mulls contest on TMC symbol

Vivek Chettri, TT, 12 March 2019, DARJEELING: Darjeeling: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has indicated that it will name a candidate for the Darjeeling seat, but the nominee will contest on the symbol of the Trinamul Congress.

Political analysts said the Morcha was banking on Trinamul so as to garner maximum votes in the plains as there was less a chance of people in the hills voting en masse this time. Morcha sources said another reason to choose the Trinamul symbol was that the hill party apprehended legal troubles as a case was pending in Calcutta High Court over the post of its president .

The Morcha and Trinamul will be fighting the Lok Sabha elections together.

Darjeeling is scheduled to got to polls on April 18. Some Morcha leaders believe Trinamul will declare its list of candidates in Calcutta on March 13. "The Morcha has been asked to select a candidate for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. The candidate will be from the hills but will fight the polls on the Trinamul symbol," said a Morcha source.

Morcha chief Binay Tamang has left for Calcutta for discussions ahead of the declaration of the candidate.

Trinamul has never won the Darjeeling seat.

Sources in the Morcha said the party had initially toyed with the idea of proposing an Independent candidate who would be backed by both the hill party and Trinamul.

"However, it has been finalised that the candidate selected by the Morcha will contest on the Trinamul symbol," said a source.

The sources said familiarising an independent candidate's symbol in the plains would have been a tall task.

The political analysts said there might be a three-cornered contest in the hills this time if the BJP and the Congress-Left combine also field candidates.

"So, votes cast in the plains will be critical this time," said an observer.

The Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat consists of seven Assembly constituencies, three in the hills and the rest in the plains.

Even though number of voters are more in the plains, votes in the plains get largely divided among the Left Front, Trinamul, Congress and the BJP.

The GNLF, CPRM, Jana Andolan Party and the ABGL (Bharati Tamang group), along with the Left and the Congress, are trying to field a "consensus" candidate.

In the last Lok Sabha elec- tions, the GNLF had backed Trinamul's Bhaichung Bhutia, who was defeated by Morcha-backed BJP candi- date S.S. Ahluwalia.

This year, the GNLF has stated that it will back neither Trinamul nor BJP in the parliament elections.