Trinamul fires Darjeeling Independent candidate

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 04 May 2019, Darjeeling: The Trinamul Congress on Friday expelled Sarda Subba for six years as she was contesting as an Independent in the Darjeeling Assembly byelection though the party is backing Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang.

Subba was Trinamul's candidate in the Darjeeling Assembly segment in the 2016 elections. She said the decision was "expected" but sounded surprised over the wording of the press statement issued by Aroop Biswas, the general secretary and Trinamul's observer of Darjeeling district. 

The release read: "The disciplinary committee of the West Bengal Trinamool Congress has Sarda Subba unanimously decided to EXPEL Sarada Rai Subba of Darjeeling District Hill Tri- namool from the party for a period of 6 years for her anty (sic) party activities time and again Subba said she couldn't support Tamang in the byelection as he had never helped Trinamul as the GTA head in the past one-and-a-half-years and did not raise many issues of the poor people. 

The second paragraph of the Trinamul statement reads: "The party clearly states that they have no connection with her in any respect. The party will also not take any responsibility of any kind of illegal activities committed by her. Subba said she was surprised by the statement. "What do they mean by `illegal activities committed by her'? Are they trying to send a scuttle message?" asked Subba, who added that "there was no real peace in Darjeeling".

Subba said she would campaign through a forum called Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Peoples' Right Forum.