Morcha faction candidates to contest as Independents, says HC

TT, 24 April 2019, Jalpaiguri: Candidates put up by the Bimal Gurung or the Binay Tamang factions of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha must contest as Independents without using old symbols, Calcutta High Court's circuit bench in Jalpaiguri said on Wednesday.

The order by the division bench came less than a month before the May 19 Assembly bypoll for the Darjeeling Assembly seat. It implies that neither camp can contest on any symbol that party candi- dates had used in earlier elections.

On March 11 this year, Justice Debangsu Basak of Calcutta High Court had asked the election commission to decide as whether Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri or Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa represent the Morcha.

This is because Tamang and Thapa had filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court, seeking an order directing the EC to delete names of the other two (Gurung and Giri) as president and secretary of the party respectively, and not allow them to contest the Lok Sabha elections polls on the symbol that would be allotted to the party.

"We had filed the petition in Calcutta High Court as the ECI had not responded to request for change in name of president and general secretary," said Binay Tamang.

Gurung and Giri, however, had countered it and had said that on November 2017, they had written to the EC, mentioning that they have been reelected in their posts.

After the March 11 order, however, the Election Com- Binay Tamang, Bimal Gurung mission was of the opinion that it cannot decide on the matter as the Morcha was an unrecognised party. On Wednesday, the division bench of Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Suvra Ghosh heard the petition filed by Joy- dip Kar, a lawyer representing the commission.

Lawyers of both the factions (Tamang and Gurung) were also present and made their submissions.

In March 2008, Morcha had registered itself with the EC. It is however, not a recognised political party and thus, its candidates had to choose from symbols provided by EC.

"The division bench heard the petition and said that any candidate fielded by either of the factions, will have to contest as Independents. They will also have to choose sym- bols which candidates of the party have not chosen in earlier elections," said Anand Bhandari, a lawyer representing the Gurung faction.

In the 2016 Assembly elections the candidates of Morcha had contested in the symbol of a candle in Darjeeling and Kurseong seat while their symbol in Kalimpong was a rising sun.

However, the candidates can mention the faction they represent, while campaigning among voters ahead of the elections, said Bhandari.

Tamang welcomed the order: "Many were saying that we were duplicate Morcha but this development does not suggest so, as of today. The court has also said that the matter should be taken up by a higher bench after the electionIn Darjeeling seat, the Assembly by-poll would be held on May 19. The seat has fallen vacant as Amar Singh Rai, the Morcha MLA, has stepped down from his post and contested as the Trinamul candidate backed by Morcha (Binay faction) in Darjeeling Parliament seat this time.